Trucking Adds 3,000 Jobs in October, Department of Labor Reports
For-hire trucking gained 3,000 jobs in October, while overall payrolls increased by 161,000, the Labor Department reported Nov. 4.
Transportation and warehousing, which includes trucking, gained 7,500 positions. The warehousing and storage sector gained 3,300 positions, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
The rise in payrolls follows a 191,000 gain in September that was larger than previously estimated. The total jobless rate declined to 4.9%, Bloomberg News reported.
Workers have been in short supply for 13 straight months, according to the Institute for Supply Management survey of service-industry companies, which make up almost 90% of the economy, according to Bloomberg.
“As it continues to tighten up, firms are going to have to resort more and more to more attractive pay to draw people in,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities in New York, told Bloomberg. “We’re pretty close to full employment.”
The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 173,000 rise in payrolls.
The support activities for the transportation sector lost 1,200 positions, but air transportation jobs rose by 2,500, according to BLS.
While economists and policymakers largely agree that the U.S. economy is close to full employment, blemishes remain, with the ranks of part-time workers and long-term jobless still higher than before the latest recession, Bloomberg reported.
The government’s underemployment rate dropped to 9.5% in October from 9.7%, while the number of people working part time for economic reasons was little changed, according to the Nov. 4 report.
