U.S. scheduled air carriers employed 5.9 percent fewer workers in July than a year earlier, the 13th straight month of declines, putting the industry-wide figure at a 16-year low, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

That payroll slide will worsen as United Airlines last week furloughed another 290 pilots, part of previously announced plans to shrink its work force. United aims to shrink its total work force by 7,000. The new furloughs bring the total number of United pilots out of work to 1,164, according to the United unit of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), leaving about 6,400 active pilots with the major U.S. air carrier.

Like other carriers, United has been slashing flights, reducing its overall capacity by 9.2 percent through August.

The number of full-time U.S. airline workers dropped to 386,000 in July. The declines were across the industry, including all network airlines and some low-cost and regional carriers.

Among the seven network airlines, which account for about 68 percent of industry jobs, the number of workers fell 7.1 percent, the 11th monthly drop in a row. Northwest Airlines, acquired last year by Delta Air Lines, had the biggest drop at nearly 13 percent, while Delta's employment rolls fell 3.1 percent.

Employment at low-cost carriers edged up 0.9 percent. The number of workers rose 20 percent at Virgin America and 13 percent at Allegiant Air, while decreases were reported at AirTran, Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines.

At regional airlines, the number of workers fell nearly seven percent. ExpressJet and Atlantic Southeast had the biggest decrease, at 24 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Compass Airlines and GoJet Airlines reported the largest increases, at 32 percent and 40 percent, respectively. American Eagle, SkyWest, Comair, Pinnacle Airlines, Horizon Air, Mesa Airlines, Air Wisconsin, Colgan Airlines and PSA Airlines also reported reduced employment levels compared to last year.

The seven network airlines employed 260,459 workers in July, 67.3 percent of the passenger airline total, while low-cost carriers employed 16.3 percent and regional carriers employed 14.6 percent.

American Airlines employed the most workers in July among the network airlines, Southwest Airlines employed the most among low-cost airlines, and American Eagle had the biggest payroll among regional airlines.

Compass Airlines, up 31.8 percent, and GoJet Airlines, up 39.8 percent, reported the largest increases in the regional air carrier group.


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