Trucking companies added 300 new employees on a seasonally adjusted basis in October, according to preliminary payroll employment figures released Nov. 5, by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
BLS also revised upward its September figures upward by 400 jobs and its August figures downward by 200. Since the beginning of March, trucking companies have added 15,900 jobs, according to the latest numbers.
For the first time since the recent downturn in trucking jobs began, payroll employment was up year over year. The for-hire trucking industry employed 2,300 more people in October than in October 2009, according to the latest data. Total employment was 1.243 million – down 210,100, or 14.5 percent, from peak trucking employment in January 2007.
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. Nor do the numbers reflect the total amount of hiring since they only include new jobs, not replacements for existing positions.
