Employment in trucking tumbles in September

October 7, 2022

Tyson Fisher

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Trucking employment saw a large decline in September, with transportation employment as a whole experiencing its first monthly decline since the pandemic began.

According to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 11,000 trucking jobs were eliminated from the economy in September. With the exception of the massive loss from the beginning of the pandemic, this marks the largest monthly decrease in more than a decade.

Revised numbers show a decrease of 200 jobs in August, and an increase of 1,700 jobs in July, both down from what was initially reported.

Year to date, trucking employment is still up by nearly 42,000 jobs.
Trucking employment chart

Accounting for all transportation sector jobs, employment is down nearly 8,000 jobs. That marks the first monthly decrease since the pandemic eliminated nearly 500,000 jobs in April 2020, breaking a more than two-year growth streak.

Trucking employment experienced the largest loss, followed by transit/ground passenger transportation (minus 3,600) and couriers/messengers (minus 1,400).

Support activities for transportation experienced the largest growth, with nearly 5,000 additional jobs.

Based on revised numbers, employment in the transportation sector grew by 5,400 in August, 17,600 in July and 15,900 in June.

For the year, transportation employment has increased by 249,000 jobs.

Wages continue to increase. Average hourly and weekly earnings of all employees in the transportation and warehousing sector increased by 11 cents to $27.89. Accounting for only production and nonsupervisory employees, average weekly earnings increased from $816.31 to $821.78.

Across all industries, more than 260,000 jobs were added to the economy, sending the unemployment down to 3.5%, which is where the nation sat on February 2020, the month before the pandemic disrupted economies nationally and globally.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index has jumped by more than 8.3% over the last 12 months. The 0.1% monthly increase in August was broad-based, with the indexes for shelter, gasoline, and food being the largest contributors. The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.6%, up 6.3% over the year. LL