Trucking Adds 1,400 Jobs in December, Department of Labor Reports
For-hire trucking gained 1,400 jobs in December, while overall payrolls increased by 156,000, the Labor Department reported Jan. 6.
Transportation and warehousing, which includes trucking, gained 14,700 positions. The warehousing and storage sector gained 11,700 positions, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
The increase in December payrolls followed a 204,000 rise in November that was bigger than previously estimated, Bloomberg News reported.
The U.S. labor market turned in a solid performance at the end of 2016, putting job gains above 2 million for a sixth year, according to Bloomberg. The jobless rate ticked up to 4.7% as the labor force grew, and wages rose 2.9% from December 2015.
“It’s a very strong job market overall,” said Scott Brown, St. Petersburg, Florida-based chief economist for Raymond James Financial Inc., who projected a 155,000 gain in payrolls. “There’s a further tightening in labor market conditions. Wage pressures are certainly building, and we should continue to see further upward pressure this year.”
The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 175,000 advance.
Support activities for transportation gained 3,800 jobs while the transit and ground passenger transportation sector lost 4,700 position, according to BLS.
The latest total payrolls tally brought the advance for 2016 to 2.16 million, after a gain of about 2.7 million in 2015. The streak of gains above 2 million is the longest since 1999, when Bill Clinton was president, Bloomberg reported.
Among the details of the December report, the participation rate, which shows the share of working-age people in the labor force, increased to 62.7%, from 62.6%, according to Bloomberg. It has been hovering close to the lowest level in more than three decades.
