Trucking Adds 3,300 Jobs in June as Unemployment Rate Declines to 6.1%
Trucking accounted for 3,300 of the 288,000 jobs added in June, and the unemployment rate declined 6.1%, the Labor Department reported.
The job increase was above economists’ forecasts of 215,000, Bloomberg News reported.
The transportation and warehousing sector, which includes trucking, added 16,600 positions in June. The 288,000 rise followed a 224,000 gain in May.
“We’re seeing a self-sustaining recovery, where production growth leads to job growth, which leads to consumption growth,” Robert Stein, deputy chief economist at First Trust Portfolios told Bloomberg.
Manufacturing added 16,000 jobs after an increase of 11,000 in May. Construction companies added 6,000 workers after a 9,000 rise the prior month.
The 1.39 million rise in employment over the past six months is the biggest over a similar period since early 2006, Bloomberg reported.
“The labor market is literally exploding,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, told Bloomberg. “It’s a full-on expansion. The economy is creating millions of jobs.”
