Trucking Adds 700 Jobs in April as Unemployment Holds at 5%
Trucking added 700 jobs in April and unemployment was unchanged at 5%, the Labor Department reported May 6.
The transportation and warehousing sector, which includes trucking, gained 8,600 positions, as the warehousing and storage sector gained 6,500 jobs.
The 160,000 rise in payrolls was the fewest in seven months and followed a 260,000 increase the prior month, Bloomberg News reported. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 200,000 advance in April.
The rise in trucking jobs follows a 2,500 decline in March that was revised up from 2,400. Total transportation services and warehousing jobs rose by 4,900 last month.
“Employment was never going to continue rising at more than 200,000 a month indefinitely,” Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto, said in a research note, according to Bloomberg. “Those monthly gains are simply unsustainable in an economy with a potential economic growth rate of less than 2%.”
In construction, employment rose by just 1,000 after jumping 41,000 in March that may have reflected milder weather across the country, Bloomberg reported.
