Here's a good writeup of why the FAA has had so much trouble in the past, hiring air traffic controllers: https://www.tracingwoodgrains.com/p/the-full-story-of-the-fa...

It's a pretty crazy story, involving an assesment with most questions worth zero points, a cheating scandal, and the invalidation of credentials that potential employees spent years obtaining.

If you don't have time to read it, at least try the selected questions from the assessment, they're pretty crazy: https://kaisoapbox.com/projects/faa_biographical_assessment/

There are plenty of kids on flightsims doing what is basically real ATC for fun.

What a fantastically successful recruiting campaign.