Bra:
Some answers to your questions:
July 1988 WestAir new hire on the EMB-110
1900 total, 163 Muliti
Back then they counted multi instructor time as double so that helped a little. WestAir was one of the ones that pretty much required an ATP as well.
Off the top of my head the pay was right around $12,500 first year, but upgrades came in the 6 to 9 month range and it went up to $22,000/year as a first year captain. The Bae-146 Captains were over $50,000 per year. One EMB-120 check airman pulled in $75,000 with overtime.
Fast forward to 1991 for the second answer. Again this is off the top of my head so it isn't precise.
USAirways furloughed close to 750 by late summer early fall 1991. They called back more than half within 6 months. The other 302 stayed out until October 1998.
TWA furloughed in 1991, somewhere in the 200 to 300 range.
Northwest furloughed something around 200, maybe less. They got a few of them jobs as cruisers at KLM.
American didn't furlough until 1993 then they had about 600 guys on the street until 1996.
United did not furlough but they did accept leaves without pay.
Not sure about the rest.
Concessions:
USAirways signed a concessionary contract in 92 or 93. Most of the concessions were in the form of duty and trip rig give backs and other similar issues that created the need to work about two to three more days per month.
TWA pilots were faced with a lot. They voluntarily dropped down to 65 hour months to prevent further furloughs. I remember running into a 15 year TWA 767 F.O. in the mid 90s who told me he only made in the $75,000 per year range. Yikes
United completed their famous ESOP in the mid 90s and they took some cuts ( or maybe lack of increases ) to pay for it.
Continental already had horrible pay scales and benefits thanks to multiple bankrupties and Frank Lorenzo.
As others have said, it was bad, but this time is worse.
Typhoonpilot