Four-hundred new payroll jobs were added in the trucking industry in the month of October, according to preliminary numbers released Nov. 7 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The for-hire industry has seen little gain in overall employment since April, according to BLS data.
Also in October, the U.S. economy as a whole added 204,000 jobs, but the unemployment rate dropped from 7.2 percent to 7.3 percent, due in part to the October partial government shutdown. Also, August and September numbers were upwardly revised by 60,000 jobs.
The for-hire trucking industry now has 1.3849 million payroll jobs — up 22,000 (1.6 percent) from the same month in 2012. Trucking employment is up 150,900 jobs (12.2 percent) since March 2010’s bottom, but is down 68,500 jobs (4.7 percent) from January 2007’s high.
The BLS data only reflects the number of payroll employees and due to high turnover rate in trucking may overstate the number of job positions. It also does not reflect any employment in private trucking fleets.
