Airline industry continues to shrink jobs
Continental Airline’s latest layoff of 150 ground workers is only the latest in what might be called the downsizing or shrinking of US airline personnel.
Continental Airlines a few weeks ago also shed another 600 positions.
One quarter of all US airline jobs vanished in a decade, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
“Nearly one in every four US airline jobs disappeared in the ten years that ended Dec. 31, and the largest airlines were among the hardest hit,” says the Dallas Morning News.
Employment at US airlines peaked at 753,647 jobs in 2000 and has been on a steady decline since, except for a small rise in jobs in 2004 and 2007.
"The key thing is it isn’t coming from one source," economics professor George Hoffer said. "It’s just a combination of a lot of things happening in the last decade. I think that’s how it got under people’s radar screen."
Hoffer, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor, and International Air Transport Association spokeswoman Victoria Day said a number of factors contributed to the job losses.
"The economy, taxes, fuel prices, regulatory burdens, hassle factor at airports [and] security as well as the need to raise productivity through deployment of technology as well as other events over the past 10 years have taken their toll on the industry," Day said.
One reason for the move is that more passengers are booking on line, causing Continental to place a $20 fee for telephone reservations.
The more recent 150 laid off ground workers are being replaced by contractors for certain ground jobs, the airline says. These are mainly at airports where only regional service is offered.
By David Wilkening
David
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