Trucking rebounds from largest job loss in nearly a decade

For the 16th consecutive month, transportation jobs overall scored gains in May. The transport sector netted nearly 19,000 jobs to the economy, the highest increase since March’s gain of nearly 20,000 jobs. Trucking jobs also experienced its highest monthly increase since March after experiencing the largest decrease in nearly a decade.

The truck transportation subsector experienced an increase of 6,600 jobs in May after the industry lost 6,400 in April and gained 8,100 in March. Adjusted numbers reveal April’s loss to be the largest since May 2009, when 7,000 trucking jobs were lost. Numbers for May and April are preliminary and are likely to change in the coming months.

In 2017, the transportation and warehousing sector had a net gain of more than 3 million jobs. In every month except January there was a job increase compared to the previous month. September accounted for the largest one-month increase, with more than 25,000 jobs in the sector added to the economy. For the year, the trucking subsector had a net gain of 9,400 jobs in 2017.

Average hourly earnings for the transportation and warehousing sector were $24.30 for May – a 1-cent increase from April and up 53 cents from May 2017. Hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees remained stagnant at $21.79 from the previous month but are up 56 cents year to year. Average hourly earnings for private, nonfarm payrolls across all industries were $26.92, an 8-cent increase from the previous month. Compared with a year ago, average earnings have gone up by 2.7 percent, or 71 cents.

According to the report, the unemployment rate for transportation and material-moving occupations dropped significantly to 4.9 percent, compared with 5.5 percent in May 2017, but up from 4.4 percent in April. The overall unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent, the lowest in 18 years. The number of long-term unemployed dropped slightly to 1.2 million, accounting for 19.4 percent of the unemployed.