A security company owner in Memphis told me last week that he’d posted a job listing for an armed guard position three times in January. Twelve dollars an hour, full-time, night shift at a warehouse on Lamar Avenue. He got fourteen applications. Five showed up for interviews. Two passed the background check. One accepted the job. That person quit after nine days.
“I’ve been in this business for twenty years,” he said. “I have never had this much trouble filling posts.”
He’s not the only one. Across Memphis, security companies are running short-staffed. Posts go unfilled. Supervisors pull double shifts to cover gaps. Contracts get turned down because there simply aren’t enough bodies to put on site. The security guard shortage that’s been building nationally for the past three years has hit Memphis hard in 2019, and the reasons are as straightforward as they are difficult to solve.
The Economy Is Working Against Security Companies
Tennessee’s unemployment rate sat at 3.5% in January 2019. In the Memphis metro area, it was slightly higher, around 4.2%, though that number has been dropping steadily. By historical standards, the labor market is tight. Employers across every sector are competing for the same pool of workers, and security companies are losing that competition.
The math tells the story. A starting security officer in Memphis earns between $10 and $13 per hour, depending on the company and whether the post is armed or unarmed. An unarmed guard at a residential complex might start at $10. An armed officer at a warehouse could start at $12 or $13.
Amazon’s distribution centers in the Memphis area start at $15 an hour. FedEx’s ground operations pay similarly. Both offer benefits packages. Neither requires you to get a TDCI registration, complete firearms training, or work alone at a dark industrial site at 2 a.m.
For someone weighing their options, the decision isn’t complicated. “Why would I carry a gun for twelve dollars when I can sort packages for fifteen?” is how one security recruiter put it. She works for a firm that staffs guard positions across Shelby County, and she’s heard some version of that question from candidates all year.
The Turnover Problem
Even when companies manage to hire guards, keeping them is another fight entirely. Industry estimates put annual turnover in the contract security sector between 100% and 300%, depending on the market and the company. Memphis sits at the higher end of that range.
The reasons pile up. Low pay is the obvious one. Irregular schedules make it worse. Security work often means nights, weekends, and holidays. A guard might work overnights at a construction site in Whitehaven for three weeks, then get reassigned to a day shift at a medical office in Germantown. The unpredictability wears people down.
Working conditions contribute too. Standing post for eight hours at a warehouse gate on Winchester Road in January isn’t glamorous. Neither is patrolling a parking garage alone at midnight. The work can be boring for long stretches and suddenly dangerous. That combination doesn’t retain employees who have other options.
Training costs make turnover especially painful for companies. A new hire needs TDCI registration processing, orientation, site-specific training, and for armed positions, firearms qualification. A company might invest $500 to $800 getting a new guard through the door. When that person leaves after two months, the investment walks out with them.
“I trained eleven people in the fourth quarter of last year,” said the operations director for a mid-size Memphis security firm. “Four of them are still with me. Four. That’s thousands of dollars in training costs gone.”
Armed Guards: The Hardest Position to Fill
If finding unarmed guards is difficult, finding qualified armed officers is approaching something close to impossible in the current market.
Armed security requires additional licensing, training, and qualification under Tennessee law. The officer needs to complete a TDCI-approved firearms course, pass the range qualification with a 70% score, and maintain annual recertification. The company needs to carry higher liability insurance for armed posts. The client pays more for armed service, and the guard expects to earn more for carrying the added responsibility and risk.
That narrows the candidate pool considerably. Not everyone wants to carry a firearm at work. Some can’t pass the background check required for armed registration. Others don’t want the liability exposure. A security officer involved in a shooting incident, even a justified one, faces potential criminal investigation, civil litigation, and career-ending consequences. For $13 an hour, plenty of qualified people decide the risk isn’t worth it.
The companies that maintain the strongest armed guard rosters tend to recruit from specific pipelines. Military veterans transitioning to civilian employment. Retired or former law enforcement officers looking for part-time or second-career work. These candidates arrive with firearms experience, comfort under pressure, and professional bearing that clients notice and appreciate.
Shield of Steel, the veteran-owned Memphis firm operating out of their Lamar Avenue office, has built their staffing model around this military and law enforcement pipeline. Their personnel tend to come with training and discipline that exceeds the TDCI minimums. The approach gives them credibility with clients who want guards that project authority.
The limitation is supply. There are only so many transitioning veterans and retired officers in the Memphis market, and they have options beyond private security. Law enforcement agencies, federal contractors, and corporate security departments all recruit from the same pool. A former Army MP who can earn $22 an hour working for a federal contractor at the Naval Support Activity Mid-South isn’t going to take a $13 post at a strip mall.
How Companies Are Responding
The smarter security firms in Memphis have started adjusting their approach. Some of the changes are obvious. Pay is going up, slowly. Companies that were starting unarmed guards at $10 eighteen months ago are now offering $11 or $11.50. Armed positions have crept from $12 to $13 or $14 at the higher end.
Those increases help at the margins. They don’t close the gap with Amazon and FedEx.
Benefits are becoming a differentiator. Larger companies can offer health insurance, paid time off, and retirement plans. Smaller firms are getting creative with flexible scheduling, allowing guards to set availability windows and pick shifts through apps rather than being assigned rotations by a dispatcher.
Imperial Security, one of the established Memphis-area firms, has invested in retention programs that include performance bonuses and referral payments. Pay a guard $200 for every qualified hire they refer who stays 90 days, and suddenly your existing workforce becomes your recruiting department.
Walden Security, the Chattanooga-based company that has been expanding its footprint into the Memphis market, brings a different approach. With operations across the Southeast, they can offer guards opportunities at different locations, advancement into supervisory roles, and the stability of a larger organization. Their Memphis expansion has been noticeable over the past year, and they’re actively recruiting officers away from smaller local firms with promises of better pay and more consistent work.
That creates tension. When a national or large regional company moves into a market and starts offering a dollar or two more per hour, the smaller firms that can’t match those wages lose officers. The smaller companies then struggle to fill contracts, which can lead to service failures, which can cost them the contract entirely. It’s a cycle that consolidates the market over time.
The Training Bottleneck
Beyond recruiting, there’s a practical bottleneck that limits how fast companies can bring new guards online. TDCI registration takes time to process. Firearms training courses have limited capacity. Background checks can take days or weeks depending on the applicant’s history and where they’ve lived.
A company that lands a new contract requiring ten guards in two weeks faces a real problem if they don’t have ten trained, registered, available officers ready to deploy. Some firms maintain a bench of part-time or on-call officers specifically for this purpose, carrying the cost of keeping people available even when there’s no post for them.
Others rely on subcontracting, hiring guards from other firms to fill gaps temporarily. This works in emergencies, and it creates quality control headaches. A guard provided by a subcontractor may not have the same training standards, supervision, or accountability as the primary company’s own officers.
The companies that invest in continuous recruiting, maintaining a constant pipeline of candidates even when they’re fully staffed, tend to handle the staffing crunch better. It costs money to recruit when you don’t have immediate openings. It costs more money to lose a contract because you couldn’t staff it.
What Clients Should Know
If you’re a business owner or property manager in Memphis contracting with a security company, the guard shortage affects you directly. Here’s how:
Response to callouts may be slower. If a guard calls in sick and the company can’t find a replacement, your post goes uncovered or gets a less experienced fill-in. Ask your provider what their backup staffing plan looks like.
Quality may slip. When companies are desperate to fill posts, they sometimes lower their hiring standards. Officers who would have been screened out in a normal market get hired because the alternative is leaving a post empty. Pay attention to the professionalism and attentiveness of the guards on your property.
Prices are going to rise. Security companies operating on razor-thin margins can’t absorb wage increases indefinitely. Bill rates that haven’t moved in three years are going to start climbing. If your provider hasn’t raised rates yet, expect the conversation soon.
Lock in good providers. If you have a security company that consistently delivers qualified, reliable officers, treat that relationship accordingly. Companies with strong reputations are getting more contract offers than they can fill. They’ll prioritize clients who pay on time, treat their officers well, and don’t nickel-and-dime on contract terms.
No Easy Fix on the Horizon
The guard shortage isn’t going to resolve itself in 2019. The economy shows no signs of cooling. Amazon is still hiring. FedEx is still hiring. The warehouse boom along Airways and Lamar keeps generating demand for more security officers at the same time the supply of available workers is shrinking.
Some industry observers predict that technology will eventually reduce the number of guards needed at certain posts. Remote video monitoring can replace some overnight positions. Access control systems reduce the need for officers manning entry points. Drone patrols and AI-powered surveillance are on the distant horizon.
For now, though, a camera can’t detain a trespasser. A sensor can’t escort an employee to their car at midnight. The security industry still runs on people, and in Memphis in March 2019, there aren’t enough of them.
That company owner I talked to last week? He just posted the same armed guard listing for the fourth time. Twelve dollars an hour, night shift, warehouse on Lamar.
He’s hoping this time, someone sticks around past day nine.