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1. The air line pilots have a mortality hazard substantially beyond that which would be experienced baby them in other occupations. Pilots constitute, from a medical standpoint, the most highly select of all occupations. For such, grant a mortality rate about the same as for insured lives generally -- and pilot mortality is giver, though not much, which represents, in relation to the proper norm, an extra hazard. 

2. The age distributions of pilots show very clearly that strong forces remove them from their jobs usually before they are 50. The data presented by the air lines at the T.W.A. hearings show that the separation rates of pilots turn sharply upward after 40 -- about 25 years earlier than in ordinary types of jobs. 

3. Our study indicates that over 7 percent of all air line pilots leave their jobs for physical disqualifications or disabilities which would, if the pilot were examined, disqualify him. As those who are familiar with the pilots know, those who fly keep a pretty good check on their physical condition; rather than have a disqualification marked against them, they prefer to change their jobs, if they can, before the doctor tells them they must.

The air lines found one percent rate where we get 7. The employers' figure is ridiculous on its face. I think the complete data will show our tentative figure to be low. But the 7 percent figure is clear evidence of the validity of our contention that pilots suffer from a very high rate of occupational disability. 

4. Job security has a lot to do with the length of working life in an industry. Pilots' jobs are not secure: 

(a) Almost one out of 5 air line pilots loses his job for lack of work The post-war rate is higher than it was in depression. This fact does not, perhaps, bear directly on the problem of retirement. But it is an indication of the economic insecurity of pilots. Any sort of insecurity emphasizes  and underscores insecurity at the time of retirement. The Air Lines Negotiating Committee found lay-offs to account for about 1 in 10 separations; this was in part because the data stopped with 1945. Over 64 of the separations in our tentative study occurred in 1946 and 1947. 

(b) The insecurity of and the working conditions involved in the pilot's occupation, apart from employer-initiated lay-offs, caused almost 1 in 8 of all separations and over 1 in 5 of the resignations. In total, insecurity in its different manifestations -- physical, lack of work, or the threat of these -- caused 46 out of each 100 pilot separations. In relation to the period, this is an astonishing proportion. 

(c) But even this is probably an understatement. One out of every 6 plots who left service did so without having a job in view.