Trucking jobs grow by more than 4,000 in June

Jobs in the transportation sector increased for the third consecutive month in June, with the trucking subsector also experiencing its third consecutive month of higher employment.

The transport sector gained nearly 24,000 jobs, with significant gains in at least half of the 10 subsectors, including trucking. Although May’s preliminary numbers showed a slight decline in trucking jobs, updated numbers reveal an increase of more than 3,000 jobs.

The truck transportation subsector experienced a significant gain of 4,300 jobs in June after the industry gained 1,800 jobs in May and 1,200 in April. May’s increase is the largest since January when trucking jobs jumped by 4,400. Numbers for June and May are preliminary

Couriers/messengers experienced the largest increase of 6,500 more jobs, followed by transit/ground passenger transport, with a gain of 5,500 jobs and trucking. Only three subsectors experienced a decline in jobs, including scenic/sightseeing transport (minus 600), water transport (minus 500) and pipeline transportation (minus 100).

Year-to-date, trucking has a net increase of 11,700 jobs. Transport jobs are at a net increase of 56,200. This time last year, trucking jobs were up 19,000 for the year.

In 2018, the transportation and warehousing sector had a net gain of more than 200,000 jobs, up from 2017’s net increase of more than 185,000 jobs. Compared to the previous month, there was a net increase in jobs in every month in 2018 except December. February accounted for the largest one-month increase, with more than 28,000 jobs in the sector added to the economy. For the year, the trucking subsector had a net gain of 43,800 jobs in 2018, significantly higher than 2017’s net increase of 16,100 jobs.

Average hourly earnings for the transportation and warehousing sector were $24.75 for June – down 6 cents from May. Earnings were up 46 cents from June 2018.

Hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees also decreased, with wages 12 cents lower to $22.47 from the previous month but up 68 cents year to year. Average hourly earnings for private, nonfarm payrolls across all industries were $27.90, a 6-cent increase from the previous month. Compared with a year ago, average earnings have gone up by 3.1%.

According to the report, the unemployment rate for transportation and material-moving occupations remained stagnant at 4.9% compared with May. This time last year, the unemployment rate in the transport sector was slightly higher at 5%. Overall unemployment increased to 3.7% from 3.6%. The number of long-term unemployed in June increased slightly to 1.4 million, accounting for 23.7% of the unemployed.