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The railroad industry is experiencing a hiring boom, expecting to add more than 80,000 new workers in the next six years, including many in the St. Louis area

The Association of American Railroads said the growing economy, sharp increase in business for railroads and a large number of retirements are leading to the hiring increase. All of the companies are looking for train conductors and engineers.

St. Louis is among the seven major railroad hubs expected to see a big jump in new hires, the association said. Union Pacific, CSX Railroad, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Norfolk Southern operate terminals in the St. Louis area.

Union Pacific Railroad (UP), which plans to move more than 1,000 employees from St. Louis to its new headquarters in Omaha, Neb., this year, said it plans to add about 30 jobs in St. Louis in the next five years to the 300 that will remain after the move. "We anticipate higher-than-normal hiring over the next five years," said John Bromley, spokesman for UP. Bromley said the company hired 2,400 new employees last year and expects to hire 4,200 this year, leveling off to about 2,400 for each of the next two to three years spread over its 23-state service area.

Gary Seiss, spokesman for CSX Railroad based in Jacksonville, Fla., declined to disclose how many employees it plans to hire here, but said CSX will hire 2,150 employees this year and 2,300 in 2005 spread among its locations in 23 states and two Canadian provinces. CSX operates a terminal in East St. Louis, which is one of its major western gateways, he said.

Steven Forsberg, spokesperson for Fort Worth, Texas-based Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), didn't have a specific number of employees that the company plans to hire in St. Louis, but said, "obviously St. Louis would get its share." BNSF employs between 100 and 200 workers in St. Louis, 2,300 in Kansas City and 800 to 900 in Springfield, Mo.

"Forty percent of our base employment is eligible for retirement in five to 10 years," Forsberg said. "In addition, the tonnage moved by the rail industry set new records last year due to economic growth. The cumulative effect of those two key drivers is leading to the hiring phenomenon.

"This is the most aggressive hiring action that the railroad industry has seen in a generation," Forsberg said.

BNSF plans to hire 1,600 across its 28-state system this year, twice the number it hired in 2003. It also plans to hire 1,500 workers for each of the next five years, Forsberg said.

Norfolk Southern, which has 230 employees in St. Louis, doesn't have any hiring scheduled for St. Louis right now, said Rudy Husband, spokesman for the Norfolk, Va.-based company. "But it's pretty much a certainty that we will be hiring there in the future."

Husband said Norfolk Southern plans to add more than 2,000 new employees companywide this year and to continue that pace for the next four to five years.

Donald Broughton, senior transportation analyst for A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis, said the railroad companies are so desperate for qualified labor that they are likely to hire more than they anticipate.

Broughton said the hiring boom is due to two phenomena: demographics, or the number of rail workers who will retire in next five to 10 years; and macroeconomics, including accommodating monetary and fiscal policies, a tax policy that encourages investment by domestic manufacturers and the devaluation of the U.S. dollar. "Our (the United States') natural resources and agricultural products are far more competitive on the worldwide market, so we're seeing more exportation of those," Broughton said. "Someone has to move them, and the people who move them are railroads.

"The surge in railroad demand right now is the greatest we've seen since the economy was coming out of the 1980-1982 double-dip recession."

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Courtesy : St. Louis Business Journal.