Trucking Adds 7,400 Jobs in June as Unemployment Rate Falls
The trucking industry added 7,400 jobs in June as the unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low of 5.3% as more people left the labor force, the Labor Department reported July 2.
The transportation and warehousing sector, which includes trucking, added 17,100 positions, with trucking adding the most jobs.
The 223,000 overall increase in employment followed a 254,000 rise the prior month that was less than previously estimated, Bloomberg News reported.
The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 233,000 increase.
The participation rate, which indicates the share of the working-age people in the labor force, decreased to 62.6%, the lowest since October 1977, from 62.9%.
Factories increased payrolls by 4,000 after a 7,000 gain a month earlier. Manufacturing and mining have been hurt by cutbacks in drilling and exploration following the plunge in oil prices.
“One month’s low number wouldn’t shake our optimism,” Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania, told Bloomberg before the report. “The job market still has a ways to go, but we’re making progress.”
A separate report Friday from the Labor Department showed applications for unemployment benefits held below 300,000 for a 17th straight week, Bloomberg reported.
Jobless claims rose by 10,000 to 281,000 in the week ended June 27. The median forecast called for 270,000 applications.
