Airline industry continues to cut employers in ’09, says BTS

In another sign the unemployment situation is affecting many Americans in the midst of consumer credit counseling as they look for work, a new study has found that employment at airline carriers is at its lowest level in nearly20 years.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, American scheduled passenger airlines had 3.7 percent fewer workers in October 2009 than they had at the same time one year earlier. The decline marked the 16th consecutive time that year-over-year levels of full-time employees for the airlines had declined.

Of the seven major airlines, all decreased their employment figures over that timespan except for Delta Airlines, which saw its employment rise by 7.3 percent. The major airlines also accounted for 68.2 percent of the workers hired in the industry, with the remaining workers being employed at either low-cost or regional carriers.

Additionally, the 379,800 workers that the BTS reported were employed in the industry in October was the lowest total amount since 1993.

The employment figures for the airline industry were released the same day that the International Air Transport Association issued grim news for the industry’s prospects in 2010. Revising previous data, the association broadened the expected global net losses in the airline industry from $3.8 to $5.6 billion. It maintained that net losses would total $11 billion.