Trucking employment surges as 8,400 jobs added in November

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nov 13 employmentA total of 8,400 payroll jobs were added to the for-hire trucking industry’s payroll in November — the first real jump since the spring of this year, coming on the heels of about six months of stagnant or no growth in the trucking employment. The seasonally adjusted numbers were issued Dec. 6 in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly employment report.

Moreover, October’s preliminary employment numbers — which said the trucking industry added 400 jobs in the month — were upwardly revised to 2,400 added jobs.

The U.S. as a whole added 203,000 jobs in November, pushing the unemployment rate down to a 5-year low: 7 percent.

For-hire trucking industry employment rose in November to 1.3953 million — 18,600 more than the same month in 2012 and 161,300 jobs higher than the industry’s employment bottoming out in March 2010. However, it’s still 58,100 jobs shy of January 2007’s high mark.

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.