Trucking adds 3,200 jobs as overall employment gains fall short

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The for-hire trucking industry added 3,200 new payroll jobs on a net basis in January, according to latest monthly figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The first month of 2014 follows a weak hiring report from December, when trucking added only 100 jobs.

Overall, nonfarm payrolls grew by 113,000, substantially lower than many economists expected. The overall unemployment rate was down a tick to 6.6 percent, the lowest level in five years.

Employment grew in construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, and mining. Retail, utilities, and government employment all posted declines.

The 1.3911 million payroll jobs in for-hire trucking is up 19,900 jobs, or 1.5 percent, from January 2013. Trucking employment is up 157,100 jobs, (12.7 percent) from the bottom in March 2010, but it remains 62,300 jobs (4.3 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.