In this past month, the airline industry has seen a good amount of proposed job cuts. In fact, American Airlines announced that they may cut as many as 900 flight attendant jobs and 8 percent of its management. Additionally, United Air Lines announced that they will cut loose 950 pilots. The economy is going into a period of recession, and with oil prices rising airlines have no choice. However, in the long run, when the recession is over (which has yet to start, but most likely will), I hope that they will be able to hire them all back. Yet, I gasp when I think of the future and imagine a country with half of the number of airlines that we have today. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves…
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But we’re not in recession!
Have you been living under a rock or something?
Well, by definition a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, which has yet to occur. The economy is still growing, just a at a much slower pace.
In the United States, the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER) Business Cycle Dating Committee ultimately decides whether the economy has fallen into a recession. The NBER defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production and wholesale-retail sales.” (from Wikipedia)
The official announcement has not yet been made, but it is anticipated to occur before the end of the year. So, we’re likely in a recession now, but the report on it won’t be out for a few months.
There’s a difference between what’s anticipated and what actually happens. Many anticipated a negative GDP number for first quarter – didn’t happen. Then it was expected for it to be lowered in the revision – but it was revised up.
The first release for the second quarter comes out July 31.