Trucking job losses slow

Updated Dec 10, 2009

Payroll employment among for-hire trucking companies in November dropped 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from October levels.

Employment is down 8.7 percent from November 2008, according to preliminary figures released Friday, Dec. 4, by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The latest BLS report includes adjustments to previous figures showing slightly fewer job losses in recent months than previously reported.

With the estimated 2,400 jobs lost in November, the trucking industry has lost a little more than 89,000 jobs since the end of 2008 – a decline of 6.7 percent. Job cuts since July 2008 – just before the current decline – total 139,700. 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.

Seasonally adjusted trucking employment peaked in January 2007 at more than 1.45 million, according to BLS figures. Since then, for-hire trucking companies have shed 203,100 jobs, or 14 percent.

The jobs report for the overall economy was very positive, relatively speaking, with a loss of only 11,000 jobs on a net basis.