Trucking employment dipped in January – a first since April

From Commercial Carrier Journal. The number of payroll jobs in the for-hire trucking industry fell by 2,900 jobs in January, according to preliminary data released Friday by the Department of Labor in its monthly Employment Situation Summary. That’s the first month since April that trucking industry employment fell from the month prior. The slowdown in…

youngtrucker_8_0.jpg

From Commercial Carrier Journal.

The number of payroll jobs in the for-hire trucking industry fell by 2,900 jobs in January, according to preliminary data released Friday by the Department of Labor in its monthly Employment Situation Summary. That’s the first month since April that trucking industry employment fell from the month prior.

The slowdown in hiring among trucking fleets fits into the U.S. economy’s overall trend. Job gains in the broader economy hit a plateau in recent months, and employers overall added just 49,000 jobs in January on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Since May, for-hire fleets have added back 47,000 jobs, but total industry employment, some 1.475 million jobs in January, was nearly 50,000 jobs shy of the recent high mark from last February – before the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic began in earnest in the U.S.

Likewise, year over year, total employment among for-hire fleets was down 47,300 jobs compared to January 2020 and down nearly 53,000 jobs from the same month in 2019.

Major freight-producing sectors construction and manufacturing also both lost jobs in the month, 3,000 and 10,000, respectively, and the retail trade sector, which has carried much of the economic recovery since last spring, dropped 37,800 jobs.

See the complete article from Commercial Carrier Journal online.

Posted in