In Germany we´re probably going to loose about a quarter of the operational workforce into retirement over the next five years. Hence a massive recruitment effort was started pre-Covid, ab-initios for the most part plus a few ready-entries from abroad. I´m not sure whether we can afford to continue this effort in the short term, but if not we´ll pay for it in a couple of years. Again.
Anyway, to be honest, the current situation is not trivial. Management knows as much as anybody else how traffic levels will develop....
Even if recruitment would continue, there´s really no way we could properly train all those new guys and gals. Sectors have been collapsed for most of the last seven months and the few simulators can only do so much.
I´m sure mighty glad we were way understaffed before this sh.. started.