Trucking jobs up slightly in November

Trucking jobs went up slightly in November, with transportation employment as a whole experiencing a monthly decrease.

According to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 1,000 trucking jobs were added to the economy in November.

Revised numbers show an increase of 7,500 trucking jobs in October and a decrease of nearly 5,000 jobs in September.

Year to date, trucking employment is still up by more than 62,000 jobs.

Accounting for all transportation sector jobs, employment is down more than 15,000 jobs, marking the fourth consecutive decrease for the sector. In August, transportation employment fell by more than 1,000 jobs, marking the first monthly decrease since the pandemic eliminated nearly 500,000 jobs in April 2020, breaking a more than two-year growth streak.

The couriers/messengers and warehousing/storage subsectors contributed to the monthly decline, each experiencing a drop of more than 12,000 jobs. Water transportation (minus 300) and pipeline transportation (minus 400) were the only other subsectors to experience a monthly decline.

Based on revised numbers, employment in the transportation sector fell by 3,400 in October and 18,100 in September.

For the year, transportation employment has increased by more than 213,000 jobs.

Wages continue to increase. Average hourly and weekly earnings of all employees in the transportation and warehousing sector increased by 72 cents to $29.52. Accounting for only production and nonsupervisory employees, average weekly earnings increased from $1,017.95 to $1,053.72.

Across all industries, more than 260,000 jobs were added to the economy. The unemployment rate remains unchanged at 3.7%.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer price index has jumped by 7.7% over the last 12 months. The 0.4% monthly increase in October 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 0.3%, up 6.3% over the year. LL