Trucking’s dip comes amid an otherwise stable jobs report, with the U.S. economy as a whole adding 138,000 jobs — fewer than anticipated but enough to push the unemployment rate to 4.3 percent.
The small decrease in trucking industry employment follows a 1,700 decrease in April, though February and March posted strong gains in industry employment, gaining nearly 13,000 jobs combined between the two months.
Total employment in for-hire trucking totaled 1473.8 in May, according to the DOL. That’s nearly 24,000 jobs more than May 2016.
Construction in the month added 11,000 jobs, while manufacturing dropped 1,000. The transportation and warehousing sector, under which trucking employment falls, added 3,600 jobs in the month.
