The for-hire trucking industry added 400 new payroll jobs on a net basis in October, according to latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The trucking jobs total has been essentially flat since April.
The U.S. economy overall added 204,000 net new jobs, despite a federal government shutdown that was expected to limit payroll growth. The August and September gains were revised upward by some 60,000 jobs in the latest report. The national unemployment rate nonetheless rose slightly, from 7.2 to 7.3 percent, likely a function of the brief federal shutdown.
The 1.3849 million payroll jobs total in for-hire trucking is up by 22,000 jobs, or 1.6 percent, from October 2012. Trucking employment is up by 150,900, or 12.2 percent, from the bottom in March 2010, but it remains 68,500 jobs, or 4.7 percent, 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.
