If you ever wanted to work for an airline, now's your chance. With the news that American Airlines is cutting 1% of their flights in July due to inadequate staffing levels, we wondered how aggressively the company was hiring after COVID related layoffs and other factors led to a 31,000 person force reduction back in 2020. See for yourself:

While the number of listings has not skyrocketed, it does look like the company has reached an important hiring milestone: job openings are returning to pre-pandemic levels. The airline had warned 13,000 workers in February that they would be furloughed, but rescinded the notice after Congress passed President Joe Biden's COVID relief package in March.

It seems that retaining the 13,000 workers from February isn't enough though, as indicated by the flight cancellations and the uptick in hiring. It's unclear if the airline would try to recall other workers who were laid off or otherwise left the company in 2020, but one thing is sure: after absolutely flatlining in job listings from March to July of 2020, the openings began to steadily tick upward. Though the listings have dived several times since then, the lows kept getting higher, to the point where the job openings this past Friday (127) just about match their openings from February 2020.

It's also likely several of the job listings, like this one for Customer Service Agent, have multiple openings behind them — so the true number of staff American Airlines is seeking to hire is likely even higher.

There's no question travel is rebounding sharply and unlike consulting firms, airlines and hotels mostly decimated their workforces in order to stay afloat through the pandemic. But now that economic reopening appears to have taken hold, it's likely that companies are going to be desperate for trained, qualified workers for some time to come.

About the Data:

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online, jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings, and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.