ATCs have been understaffed for 1-3 decades, which means the FAA has required mandatory overtime. I hope gamers like working at least one 6-day, 60-hour work week each month, because that's what the policy has been up until recently. And ofc that contributes to unsafe work environments due to ATC exhaustion.
https://natca.org/2024/04/19/natca-calls-on-faa-to-collabora...
Also, passing or even qualifying to take the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA) -- the ATC aptitute qualification test -- is extremely difficult. In 2024, almost 13k people applied to take the ATSA; fewer than 9k applicants were approved to take the ATSA, fewer than 5.5k people actually took it, fewer than 2.2k scored 85+% ("well-qualified") on the ATSA, and only 1,811 applicants -- ~13% of the original 13k -- were ultimately hired.
https://www.globalair.com/articles/the-faas-real-atc-problem...
And if you're not a white male, that's likely to hurt your chances, too. Women have comprised only 16-18% of ATCs consistently since the 1980s; 64% of ATCs are white.
https://www.everythingpolicy.org/policy-briefs/diversity-and...
There's a bunch of other problems, too, but I'm too lazy to go searching for articles that call them out. Suffice it to say that I don't believe the FAA -- especially under the current administration -- has the capacity to objectively improve ATC hiring & employment practices, and will likely only make things worse.