Trucking Adds 3,100 Jobs; Unemployment Rate Declines to 9%

The unemployment rate declined to a six-month low of 9% in October while the economy added 80,000 jobs, including 3,100 trucking jobs, the Labor Department said Friday.

Total transportation and warehousing sector employment rose by 9,400 workers, Labor figures showed.

Economists had projected the unemployment rate would remain at 9.1%, Bloomberg reported. The number of jobs gained was below economists’ forecasts of 95,000, Bloomberg said.

The payrolls gain followed a revised 158,000 increase in September that was higher than originally reported.

The payroll and unemployment figures are obtained by separate surveys, with payrolls from a survey of employers and the unemployment rate from a survey of households.

Factory employment rose by 5,000, the first increase in three months, while service employment climbed by 90,000 jobs.

Private hiring rose by 104,000 jobs after a revised gain of 191,000 the previous month. Government payrolls decreased by 24,000.