A sign of hope? Airlines are hiring more employees

Amid all the anecdotes and statistics documenting the decline of airline service quality and the increase of passenger woes, here’s a slightly hopeful trend unearthed last week by the Transportation Department’s statistical branch: U.S. airlines are increasing their staffing levels. It’s not a huge jump, but any increase has got to be good news for the overworked gate agents, baggage handlers and others who are facing record passenger crowds this year. According to DOT, the airline industry employed 2.3 percent more people in June 2007 than it did in June 2006 . As low-cost carriers continue their growth, it stands to reason that their segment of the industry added 5.3 percent more employees in the past year. But the trend was also in evidence at the network airlines, which increased their collective workforce by 1.3 percent in June 2007 over the same month a year earlier. It was the second consecutive monthly gain for network carrier employment. “Prior to the May increase, the network group had reduced full-time employees from the previous year every month since August 2001,” DOT said. Delta’s workforce grew by 8.3 percent since June 2006, while the increase was 6 percent at US Airways, 4.5 percent at Continental and 1.5 percent at Alaska. Conversely, Northwest’s employee roster shrank by 4.4 percent and United’s was down 2.6 percent.