U.S. scheduled airlines employed 437,014 workers in November 2005, down 6.4% from a year earlier, the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said yesterday.

The biggest drop came at the seven network carriers tracked by BTS. These airlines saw full-time and part-time employee numbers decline by 9% in November to 290,352. The low-cost carrier employment total dropped 2% to 74,299, and regional carriers were unchanged at 59,301 employees.

Full-time employees were down 7% for November, and part-time employees dropped 2%. November was the 11th consecutive month that employee numbers have fallen, compared with 2004 levels, and it also saw the largest drop. This was the fourth consecutive month with employment declines of at least 5%.

Compared with November 2001, employment at network carriers plummeted 28%. The largest declines were 47.7% at US Airways and 34.4% at United. The seven low-cost carriers that were reporting in November 2001 have seen a 15.8% rise since then, while the seven regional carriers reporting in 2001 posted a 13.8% increase.