Trucking job growth in February strongest in four years

Trucking jobs are up again, closing in on two consecutive years of increases after the pandemic erased more than five years of growth.

More than 5,000 trucking jobs were added to the economy in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This marks the 22nd consecutive month of increases.

In April 2020, the trucking subsector lost nearly 80,000 jobs after state governors began implementing stay-at-home orders, sending the number of people employed in the trucking subsector down to 1.43 million. The last time trucking employment was that low was in September 2014.

Trucking employment reached pre-pandemic levels last summer and has been growing ever since. So far this year, there are more than 10,000 additional trucking jobs. This time last year, less than 4,000 jobs were created in the first two months.

There are nearly 61,000 more trucking jobs now than there were this time last year.

Trucking job data for January and February are preliminary and likely to change.

Aaron Terrazas, director of economic research for Seattle-based digital freight network Convoy, points out that this year is the strongest February for trucking jobs four years. Trucking employment increased by nearly 7,000 jobs in February 2018.

“In years when the freight market is strong, trucking firms tend to get a head start on hiring in anticipation of late-spring volume surges; in soft-market years, February tends to be a continuation of January’s post-holiday hangover,” Terrazas told Land Line. “Today’s data show that – amid what is arguably the tightest blue-collar labor market in a generation – broad swaths of the logistics industry hoarded labor and limited seasonal layoffs this winter.”

To read Terrazas’ full analysis of the employment situation report, click here.

The transportation sector as a whole added nearly 48,000 jobs in February. Like the trucking subsector, the transportation sector is experiencing 22 straight months of job growth.

Every subsector within the transportation/warehousing sector is experiencing job growth, except for one. Rail transportation is down 100 jobs. Warehousing and storage is seeing the largest growth spurt with nearly 11,000 additional jobs in February.

The unemployment rate for the transportation is at 7%, which is down from 9.5% last February. For the entire U.S. economy, the unemployment rate is down from 4% to 3.8%. LL