A security company owner on the east side of Memphis told me last week that he posted 15 open guard positions in June. He got nine applications. Four showed up for interviews. Two passed the background check. One actually started the job.
He’s not alone. Across Shelby County, private security firms are struggling to fill positions at a time when the demand for guards has never been higher. The math doesn’t work: more contracts coming in, fewer people willing or able to take the jobs.
The Demand Side
COVID created security work that didn’t exist in February. Temperature screening stations at office buildings. Compliance monitors at grocery stores enforcing mask policies and occupancy limits. Patrol guards watching over commercial properties that went dark during the shutdown and haven’t fully reopened. Vacant storefronts along Poplar Avenue and Summer Avenue that need someone keeping an eye on them overnight.
Then came the protests. After George Floyd’s killing in late May, Memphis saw weeks of demonstrations downtown and in Midtown. Businesses along Union Avenue and in the South Main district boarded up windows and hired guards. Some of those contracts ended after the initial wave of activity. Others are still active.
Distribution centers and warehouses in the southeast Memphis industrial corridor around Lamar Avenue and Holmes Road have been adding security staff since March. FedEx, which runs massive sorting operations in the Memphis area, increased contractor security at several facilities. The logistics companies clustered near Memphis International Airport did the same.
Hospital systems are another source of demand. Methodist Le Bonheur, Baptist Memorial, and Regional One have all expanded their security presence during the pandemic. Screening checkpoints at every entrance, visitor management protocols that require extra personnel, and parking garage patrols for healthcare workers leaving late shifts are generating new hours that need to be staffed.
All of this is landing on the desks of security company operators who were already running lean before the pandemic.
The $600 Problem
Ask any security firm owner in Memphis why hiring has stalled, and you’ll hear the same answer within the first 30 seconds: the federal unemployment supplement.
The CARES Act, signed in late March, added $600 per week to state unemployment benefits through July 31. Tennessee’s maximum weekly unemployment benefit is $275. With the federal supplement, an unemployed worker in Tennessee could collect up to $875 per week, or roughly $22 per hour for a 40-hour equivalent.
Entry-level security guards in Memphis make between $10 and $13 an hour. That’s $400 to $520 for a full work week. Do the math. A person collecting the enhanced unemployment benefit was earning significantly more by staying home than they would by taking a security guard position that requires standing for 8 to 12 hours, often outdoors, in the Memphis summer heat.
The $600 supplement expired at the end of July, and Congress is still arguing about what comes next. Some security operators I’ve spoken with expect applications to pick up in August and September as the extra money runs out. Others aren’t so optimistic. They point out that even without the supplement, Tennessee’s base unemployment benefit still competes with the bottom end of the guard pay scale. And many potential applicants have gotten used to not working.
The market response has been predictable. Companies are raising wages. A year ago, $10 an hour was standard starting pay for unarmed guard positions in Memphis. Today, several firms are advertising $12 to $14. A few are offering sign-on bonuses of $200 to $500 for candidates who make it through training and stay 90 days.
Whether that’s enough to close the gap remains unclear.
Training and Licensing Delays
Even when a company finds a willing candidate, getting them to the job site takes time. Tennessee requires all security guards to complete state-approved training before they can work. For unarmed positions, that’s a 16-hour course. Armed guards need additional firearms qualification.
COVID gutted the training pipeline. Class sizes dropped because of social distancing. Several Memphis-area training providers shut down temporarily and haven’t fully restarted. The ones still operating have waitlists.
After training, new guards need a registration card from TDCI’s Private Protective Services division. Processing times that used to run two to three weeks have stretched past six weeks in many cases. Fingerprinting appointments through IdentoGO are backed up. Background checks through TBI are slower.
The full timeline from “I’d like to be a security guard” to “I’m cleared to work a post” can now stretch to two months or more. For companies trying to staff new contracts, that timeline is brutal.
Health Fears Are Real
There’s a factor that doesn’t show up in economic analyses: people are scared.
Security guard work during a pandemic means standing at entrances, interacting with dozens or hundreds of people per shift, enforcing rules that some of those people don’t want to follow. Mask compliance at Memphis retail locations has been a flashpoint all summer. Guards assigned to enforce store policies have been yelled at, threatened, and in some cases assaulted. Nationally, there have been several reported shootings of security guards over mask disputes.
For $11 an hour, plenty of people have decided the risk isn’t worth it.
The guards who are working express frustration about inconsistent PPE availability and unclear protocols. Some companies provide masks and hand sanitizer. Others leave it to the individual guard. Temperature screening duties put guards in close contact with every person entering a building, and not all companies have invested in the plexiglass barriers and no-touch thermometers that would reduce exposure.
The workers most likely to take security jobs, those without college degrees who need steady income, are also the demographic most affected by COVID hospitalizations in Shelby County. The Memphis ZIP codes with the highest case counts overlap heavily with the neighborhoods where security companies recruit.
Who’s Hiring and What They’re Offering
The national firms are all advertising positions in Memphis. Allied Universal, the largest private security company in North America, has been on a hiring push across the Mid-South since May. Securitas, the second-largest, is running job fairs and offering expedited onboarding for candidates with prior military or law enforcement experience.
Phelps Security, the Memphis-based firm that’s been operating on Park Avenue for decades, is one of the local outfits competing for the same labor pool. As a family-owned company rooted in the city, Phelps has the advantage of name recognition and long-standing client relationships. They’ve been posting openings for armed and unarmed positions throughout the summer.
Shield of Steel, a veteran-owned firm headquartered at 2682 Lamar Ave, is another local option that’s been actively recruiting. The company, which has been around since 1998, draws heavily from former military and law enforcement for its guard force. Their pitch to candidates centers on competitive pay and a structured training pipeline that gets new hires through the licensing process efficiently. The trade-off with a smaller outfit like Shield of Steel is fewer corporate contracts compared to the nationals, which can mean less schedule flexibility. Their phone number is (202) 222-2225, and they’re running listings through shieldofsteel.com for anyone looking.
The big question facing all of them is the same: how do you attract workers to a $12-an-hour job that involves physical risk, long hours on your feet, and public-facing confrontation during a pandemic?
Sign-on bonuses help in the short term. Higher base wages are more sustainable. A few companies are experimenting with hazard pay differentials for COVID-related posts, adding $1 to $2 per hour for screening and compliance assignments.
The Staffing Crisis Won’t End When the Pandemic Does
Here’s what worries me about the hiring situation. The pandemic exposed a structural weakness in the security industry’s labor model, and it’s a weakness that existed long before COVID.
Private security has always competed at the low end of the wage scale. The barrier to entry is a background check and a few days of training. Turnover rates in the industry typically run between 100% and 300% annually. That’s not a typo. The average security guard in America stays at a post for less than a year.
COVID made those problems worse, obviously. The unemployment supplement made the wage gap obvious. The health risks made the working conditions visible. The training delays made the bureaucratic friction painful.
When the pandemic eventually eases, the demand surge for screening and compliance guards will taper. Some of the vacant-property contracts will end as businesses reopen. Yet the core staffing problem will still be there. Memphis security companies that use this period to raise their pay floor, improve working conditions, and invest in retention are the ones that will come out ahead.
The ones waiting for things to go back to normal are going to be waiting a long time. Normal wasn’t working that well to begin with.