Trucking adds 1,000 jobs in September

user-gravatar Headshot
Updated Oct 23, 2013

9:13 EmploymentThe for-hire trucking industry added 1,000 new payroll jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly unemployment report, released Oct. 22 after a near two-week delay due to the partial government shutdown.

The economy as a whole added 148,000 nonfarm jobs in the month — about 30,000 fewer than anticipated — but the unemployment rate did drop to 7.2 percent.

The 1.3841 million payroll jobs reported in the month in for-hire trucking is 28,000 more, 2 percent, than September 2012’s figure.

Trucking employment as a whole is up 150,100 jobs, 12.1 percent, from March 2010’s bottom. However, trucking employment remains 63,900 jobs below January 2007’s peak.

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.