Trucking Industry Sees Boost in Jobs for New Year

January saw a small but significant uptick in trucking employment, as the number of transportation jobs across the country increased. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported more than 4,000 additional truck driving positions compared to December’s already impressive 5,100 increase and November’s slight gain. With this growth continuing into 2023, many experts are optimistic that these encouraging numbers will remain steady throughout upcoming months.

Last year, the industry saw an additional 64,000 jobs added in trucking.

The transportation sector as a whole experienced an overall employment increase of 23,000 jobs despite facing two drops due to the pandemic. In April 2021 and November 2022 there were respective losses in job figures: 12,900 and 37,100 respectively. The industry continues to show resilience amid challenges.

Transit and ground passenger services saw the largest increase with 7,400 additional jobs added to its roster, closely followed by support activities for transport (6,500) and trucking which also showed steady employment gains. Couriers/messengers experienced the only monthly decline with 3,100 positions lost from their workforce during this period.

Based on revised numbers, employment in the transportation sector rose by 13,000 in December and fell by more than 37,000 in November.

The transportation sector as a whole added more than 273,000 jobs in 2022.

January saw a slight decrease in wages across the transportation and warehousing sector with average hourly and weekly earnings dropping by 3 cents to $28.08. Accounting for only production and nonsupervisory employees, average weekly earnings increased from $1,000.16 to $1,013.42.

Across all industries, the U.S. economy saw the addition of more than 500,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropping slightly to 3.4%.

The unemployment rate for transportation and material moving jobs dropped from 6.3% to 5.8%.

A recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that consumer costs have been on a significant climb over the past year, rising by 6.5%. This was driven largely by an increase in shelter, food, and fuel prices, contributing to a 0.1% monthly surge last December – with all items aside from food and energy increasing 5.7% over the year.

Source: LandLine