Jobs report: Trucking employment continues uptick, adds 3,900 jobs

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The for-hire trucking industry added 3,900 jobs in October on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Department of Labor’s monthly employment report, released Nov. 7.

The DOL also upwardly revised the number of trucking jobs for August and September, with August getting an additional 1,500 jobs and September another 1,800.

The U.S. economy as a whole added 214,000 non-farm jobs in the month, according to the report, pushing the country’s unemployment rate down to 5.8 percent — its lowest point in more than 6 years.

For-hire trucking employment now totals 1.4195 million, according to BLS, up 35,300 (2.5 percent) from October 2013. It’s also up 185,500 jobs (15 percent) from the bottom in March 2010.

Trucking employment remains 33,900 jobs (2.3 percent) below January 2007’s peak.

Total transportation and warehousing employment grew by 13,300 jobs in October, according to BLS, to a total of 4.6641 million.

Manufacturing added 15,000 jobs in the month, and construction added 12,000.

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.