Trucking Adds 400 Jobs in October; Unemployment Rate Declines to 5%
The trucking industry added 400 jobs in October as the unemployment rate declined to 5%, the Labor Department reported Nov. 5.
The transportation and warehousing sector, which includes trucking, lost 2,100 positions.
The 271,000 overall increase in employment was the largest gain this year and followed a 173,000 job gain the prior month. The unemployment rate is at the lowest level since April 2008, Bloomberg News reported.
The rise in trucking jobs follows a 2,800 decline in September that was revised from 4,000. Total transportation services and warehousing jobs rose by 4,900 last month.
The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey called for an 185,000 increase in overall employment.
“It’s a solid labor market,” Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, told Bloomberg News. “The report is pretty good across the board. December is now a very high likelihood for the Fed to hike rates.”
The number of Americans working part-time because of a weak economy fell to 5.7 million in October, the lowest since June 2008.
The underemployment rate — which includes part-time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want to work but have given up looking — fell to 9.8%, the lowest since May 2008, Bloomberg reported.
The participation rate, which shows the share of working-age people in the labor force, held at 62.4%.
