Trucking Adds 5,000 Jobs as January Payrolls Rise
Trucking added 5,000 jobs in January as U.S. employers added 157,000 jobs, and the nation’s unemployment rate ticked up to 7.9%, the Labor Department said Friday.
December’s trucking-jobs gain was revised downward to 3,400 from an originally reported 4,200 increase, while November’s trucking employment was revised upward by about 6,500.
Total transportation jobs, which include trucking, fell by 14,200 in January. December’s decline for the transportation sector was revised to 4,200, from an originally reported 600, Labor figures showed.
December’s and November’s overall employment gains were revised upward to 196,000 and 247,000, respectively — adding more than 100,000 jobs to the total for those two months.
The January jobs gain was slightly below economists’ forecasts, while the unemployment rate was forecast to hold at December’s rate of 7.8%, Bloomberg News reported.
Private-sector payrolls rose by 130,000 in January. Manufacturing added 4,000 jobs and construction added 28,000 workers.
The unemployment rate rose despite the jobs gain because the payroll and unemployment-rate figures are obtained by separate surveys. Payrolls are derived from a survey of employers and the unemployment rate from a survey of households.
