Airline employment dips slightly

Employment at U.S. airlines dipped slightly in August, according to figures that were released on Monday by the Department of Transportation. 

The 21 major and regional airlines that are based in the U.S. had 384,478 employees in August, compared to 386,243 in July, the agency said. 

Transportation Department officials said the number represented a 1 percent increase over the 380,486 workers that were employed by U.S. airlines in August 2013. 

{mosads}The numbers come amid concern among airlines about Ebola fears impacting their stock prices. 

The largest employee in the airline industry according to the statistics, which were compiled before the first U.S. Ebola case was diagnosed, was United Airlines, which had 79,263 employees in August 2014. 

The second largest employer in the industry was Delta, which had 75,734 employees. 

The largest low-cost airline employer was Southwest Airlines, which had 45,569 employees. Southwest was followed by JetBlue, which had 13,456, in the low-cost carrier category.