More than 400 TSA officers have quit since shutdown began

[cmmngrnd]

7. This appears to be normal, not the result of lack of pay.

The NBC news article is reporting something normal and implying it is unusual. The focus should have been on the 10% callout rate.

tldr: TSA normally experiences an 11% attrition rate, which is about 460 front line workers a month. It has been a little over a month since lack of pay started (Feb 14, 2026).

Under Biden the TSA worker's received a significant pay increase. TSA pay was below the norm for similar federal worker positions, but beginning in Fall 2023 TSA pay was brought up to par. Some worker experiences as much as a 31% pay increase. According to Congressional testimony of David P. Pekoske, Biden's Secretary of Transportation, this brought attrition rates down from 20% to 11%. From the testimony -

"t has been my number one priority to bring TSA’s workforce compensation levels commensurate with those of our federal government counterparts, not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it is already paying dividends in ways that will have a measurable impact on our mission performance. This compensation system now matches the minimum compensation levels with the General Schedule (GS) pay scale and as reflected in TSA’s 2023 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey scores, its implementation has already improved TSA’s morale and overall employee satisfaction. TSA’s attrition has dropped from nearly 20 percent to roughly 11 percent today, and there has also been a rise in recruiting, hiring, and retention."

As the OP source article notes, there are about 65,000 TSA employees, of which 50,000 are front line. Applying an 11% attrition rate to just the 50,000 gives an annual attrition rate of 5,500, or just under 460 per month.

It is a credit to Pekoske and the Biden administration that they've made the TSA a desirable enough workplace that people staying. It is a credit to the TSA workers that they are effectively protesting the current situation through work slowdowns and no-shows. Federal employees, especially those involved with safety and security, have few options and they are taking advantage of the ones they have. Some of us old timers remember when Reagan fired the striking federal air traffic controllers.