Trucking Adds 300 Jobs as Unemployment Holds at 9.6%

Although private sector employment increased by 159,000 overall during the month of October, for-hire trucking employment only grew by 300, according to the Labor Department.

Labor said that despite the gains, the nation’s unemployment rate remained at 9.6% last month, unchanged since May. (Click here for previous coverage.)

Bob Costello, chief economist for American Trucking Associations, called the report “positive,” but said the unemployment rate remained high with more people entering the work force.

He said the 300 new trucking jobs represented such a small number that “it’s essentially like no change.” Trucking has gained 8,600 jobs the past four months, 6,300 of those gains in July alone.

“A lot of fleets will tell you April, May and June they saw nice increases in freight, and then, boom, it just ended,” Costello said. “Since July, things have slowed down significantly in terms of job gains.”

He attributed the early and mid-summer gains to big fleets ramping up their driver recruitment and retention departments.