Trucking news and briefs for Monday, Dec. 7, 2020:
For-hire trucking’s employment rally continues, still down 50k jobs from February
The for-hire trucking industry added a seasonally adjusted 12,700 jobs in November, as the industry continues to try to make up for ground lost in March and April, when total employment among for-hire fleets fell off a cliff. According to the Department of Labor’s monthly Employment Situation Summary, total employment in the for-hire trucking industry was 1,474,400 in November — still 52,900 jobs shy of February’s recent peak. It’s also 55,400 jobs shy of the same month last year.
However, November’s hiring numbers were the strongest for trucking since the freight recovery began in June, helping close the gap of the nearly 97,000 jobs lost in March and April. It’s largely presumed those were drivers that were either laid off or left the industry when freight demand crumbled in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since May, for-hire fleets have added back 43,800 jobs.
November’s acceleration in hiring by motor carriers bucked the trend of the overall economy, which saw hiring slow significantly in November. The U.S. economy added 245,000 jobs – historically a strong month, but well below recent months’ gains. In September and October, respectively, the economy added 638,00 jobs and 661,000 jobs. In July and August, the economy added well over a million jobs each — 1.4 million in August and 1.8 million in July. In June, nearly 5 million jobs were added.
Nonetheless, in November, the country’s unemployment rate fell to 6.7% — well down from the nearly 14% in the depths of the COVID-caused recession in April.
Among major freight producing sectors, construction and manufacturing each gained 27,000 jobs. The retail sector, which has carried the economic recovery, was a mixed bag. General merchandise stores, which includes department stores and supercenters, shed more than 20,000 jobs. Likewise, sporting goods, book stores and hobby stores dropped 12,000 jobs. Health and personal care stores lost 8,000 jobs. On the flip side, furniture retailers added nearly 6,000 jobs, and auto dealers and parts stores added about 5,000 jobs. Overall, retail sector employment fell by nearly 35,000 jobs.
