Would be interesting to know just how dangerous it is though, particularly for relatively low pay. The article covers some plane crashes, but doesn't really explore the question in detail.
- Being a dual citizen (and, far worse, holding a passport from the other country) even if they were born citizens of the US and the other country
- Having traveled to several countries, like China or Russia, for reasons other than a short tourism stay
- Being married to a non-US-citizen, even a permanent resident
- Owing a lot of money on student loans
- Parents being born in or citizens of the "wrong" country
- Psychiatric or psychology counseling for certain conditions
- A history of regular gambling
From what I can tell, the investigators want someone who was born in the US to parents whose ancestry can both be traced to the Mayflower and who does nothing except stay at home and read National Geographic while sitting by the fire next to an equally-suitable spouse.
They don’t care if you like to go out drinking
Not going to lie though, it would be really interesting to do a tour just to see how it all works.
These days people do all they can to stay put, eschewing travel or relocation, both internationally and domestically. The dearth of truck drivers also seems to reflect this cultural shift.
By my calculation the number of overseas departures relative to population has steadily increased: 6.3% in 1997, 8.5% in 2007, 9.2% in 2017. (Those numbers exclude Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean.) And only 2008, 2009, and 2010 saw a YTD drop. However, according to this article (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-d-chalmers/the-great-...) the percentage of unique travelers is decreasing (or did decrease) per year. That is, an increasingly selective cohort is traveling more.
There's also the question of what percentage of citizens traveling are immigrants. The number of foreign born citizens has been steadily increasing over the above time period.
The MMGY Global's report, mentioned in the article, is $3k. I'm not that invested in my post (not to the tune of $3k) so I can't actually look at the data myself.[1]
I suspect you may be right and that my impressions are wrong; but it's not at all clear-cut.
[1] Especially more recent data as numbers during the Great Recession may have been anomalous.
I think a lot of people in their 20s want vacation travel, but business travel loses its lustre quite rapidly. The extremely odd subset of the population that legitimately enjoys business travel usually ends up in consulting which is more rewarding and has a better career progression.
My guess would be that once you have the clearances for awhile, you can make a lot more money working for some contractor.