After a couple of months of improvement, for-hire trucking employment posted a loss in September and gave back much of the summer’s gain.
Trucking was down 3,600 jobs last month, according to the latest jobs report from the U.S. Dept. of Labor. Trucking has lost 8,900 jobs since the all-time high posted in January, and there are 2,100 fewer jobs than in September last year.
This comes as the overall U.S. economy added 156,000 jobs in September, slightly less than expected by economists and enough to keep employment momentum positive. The national unemployment rate, however, ticked up to 5%.
The September loss puts the for-hire trucking total at 1.4567 million, that’s 223,500 (18%) more trucking jobs than were reported in March 2010, the low point in the economic downturn.
Collectively the transportation and warehousing lost 9,000 jobs for the month, with transit and ground passenger transportation down 14,100 jobs, negating gains in warehousing and storage (+5,300), support activities (+3,300) and couriers and messengers (+2,700).
Gains in the broader economy occurred in professional and business services (+67,000), health care (+33,000) and food services (+30,000).
Employment in other major industries, including construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, information, financial activities, and government, changed little over the month.
