Trucking adds 5,900 jobs in July

The for-hire trucking industry continued to add jobs in July even as the overall U.S. economy lost jobs due to the wind-down of the federal government’s 2010 Census effort, according to preliminary figures released Aug. 6 by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Payroll employment was up 5,900 over June, although that June figure had been revised downward by 1,700 from the figures BLS reported last month. Since the beginning of March, trucking companies have added 13,000 jobs, according to the preliminary numbers.

Trucking companies added 5,900 jobs in July, but trucking employment was still down 1.1 percent from July 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Year over year, payroll employment was down in July over July 2009 but only by 1.1 percent. Total employment was 1.24 million – down 213,000, or 14.7 percent, from peak trucking employment in January 2007. The BLS numbers reflect all payroll employment in for-hire trucking, but they don’t include trucking-related jobs in other industries, such as a truck driver for a private fleet. Nor do the numbers reflect the total amount of hiring since they only include new jobs, not replacements for existing positions.

Manufacturing orders dip in June

New orders for manufactured goods declined $5.1 billion, or 1.2 percent, in June compared to May, according to figures reported Aug. 3 by the U.S. Census Bureau. The drop in June followed a 1.8 percent decrease in May. Lower orders could indicate a softening in demand for trucks in the near future.

Shipments also were down slightly in June following a decline in May that mirrored the drop in new orders. Unfilled orders were down slightly in June following two consecutive monthly increases. The ratio of unfilled orders-to-shipments was 5.6, down from 5.61 in May.

Although the orders figures weren’t good news for trucking, the trend in inventories was, although only moderately so. Inventories edged slightly lower – 0.1 percent – in June following a 0.4 percent decrease in May.

New orders for manufactured durable goods were down 1.2 percent in June, while orders for nondurable goods fell 1.3 percent. In June, the largest decline was in transportation equipment, which dropped 2 percent and has fallen in four of the last five months.