Trucking adds 2,600 jobs

The trucking industry hired 2,600 new payroll employees in September, according to preliminary numbers released Oct. 7 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

BLS also revised downward its employment estimates for trucking during July and August by 800 jobs.

Compared with September 2010, trucking employment is up by 42,200, or 3.4 percent. Payroll employment is up by 28,400 jobs, or 2.3 percent, in 2011 and by 57,100 jobs, or 4.7 percent, since the bottom of trucking employment in March 2010. The number of trucking jobs β€” 1.284 million β€” remains nearly 169,000 below peak employment 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 include new jobs, not replacements for existing positions.

The entire U.S. economy added 103,000 jobs in September, according to preliminary BLS estimates. In addition, BLS revised its initial estimates to show the economy added 57,000 jobs in August; initial figures showed no change at all from July to August. The unemployment rate remained at 9.1 percent as the number of workers entering or re-entering the work force basically offset the number of new jobs.


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