The for-hire trucking industry continued to pull back from its recent hiring binge, cutting another 3,500 payroll jobs in June, according to preliminary estimates released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The reduction was on top of a revision in May figures to reflect a loss of 2,600 jobs rather than the 700-job reduction initially reported last month.
The economy as a whole continued to add net new jobs, however. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 195,000 in June, and gains in April and May were revised upward to about that same number, according to preliminary BLS figures. In June, employment rose in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, retail trade, health care and financial activities. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.6
The 1.3797 million payroll jobs in for-hire trucking is up by 30,300 jobs, or 2.2%, from June 2012. Trucking employment is up by 145,700 jobs, or 11.8%, from the bottom in March 2010, but it remains 73,700 jobs, or 5.1%, below the peak in January 2007.
The BLS numbers for trucking 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 reflect the number of employees paid during a specified payroll period during the month. Due to high turnover rates, the BLS estimates may overstate the number of job positions due to the methodology used in the agency’s Current Employment Survey.
