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Title: The Changing Demography of US Flight Attendants

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2009

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Abstract: (June 2009) Over the last several decades, many industries have experienced significant structural changes that have affected their employees. The airline industry, for example, has faced major policy and economic forces that have changed the demography of its workers, especially its flight attendants.Civil rights laws in the mid-1960s made it illegal for employers to discriminate on the basis of age, sex, or race. Thus, the airline industry had to abandon its preference for hiring young women as well as its no-marriage and no-pregnancy rules and weight restrictions. In addition, deregulation of the airline industry in the late 1970s led to a hiring freeze of flight attendants and an ensuing preferential treatment for hiring workers furloughed by other airlines.1 Finally, the Sept. 11 attacks resulted in significant layoffs of flight attendants. In this environment, many flight attendants with low levels of accrued seniority were often the first to be furloughed.Flight attendants have become older compared with the overall U.S. workforce over the last several decades. The ongoing economic crisis suggests that the population of flight attendants will age even more in the coming years as many workers are likely to postpone their retirement.2

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Authors: Evans, Louwanda; Saenz, Rogelio

Publisher: Population Reference Bureau

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Aging and Retirement, Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure

Countries: United States