Trucking jobs up slightly as US employment surges

The number of jobs in the trucking rebounded slightly in October after a big loss the month before, but this comes as overall U.S. employment soared, according to the latest jobs report from the U.S. Dept. of Labor.

The October gain of 400 jobs puts the trucking total at 1.4546 million, and the new report revised the September jobs total upward by 1,800 to take some of the sting out of the previously reported 4,000-job decline from August. Still, the industry has given back much of the employment gain made over the summer.

The good news is employment remains above the pre-recession high from January 2007, and there were 221,400 more trucking jobs in October than were reported in March 2010, the low point in the downturn.

Compared to October last year, for-hire trucking has added 28,100 jobs, an increase of 2%. (See the interactive chart below.)

Collectively, the transportation and warehousing sector lost 2,100 jobs in October with the largest decline coming in the support activities sectors (down 7,500 jobs).

This comes as the broader economy added 271,000 jobs for the month, well above  economists’ forecasted gains and the strongest pace of growth this year. Unemployment fell to 5%, the lowest level since 2008. The 5% national rate is the benchmark set by economists for full employment.

Leading the gains, employment in professional and business services increased by 78,000 in October, followed by Healthcare (45,000 new jobs), retail (44,000), food services (42,000), and construction (31,000).

On the losing side, employment in mining continued to decline in October, down 5,000 jobs.

Employment in other major industries including manufacturing, wholesale trade, information, financial activities, and government showed little or no change over the month, the Labor Department reported.