Trucking Loses 3,600 Jobs in September, Department of Labor Reports
For-hire trucking lost 3,600 jobs in September, while overall payrolls increased by 156,000 the Labor Department reported Oct. 7.
The loss of trucking jobs followed a gain of 3,400 in August.
Transportation and warehousing, which includes trucking, lost 9,000 positions. The transit and ground passenger transportation sector lost 14,100 positions, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
The total jobless rate increased to 5% as the labor participation rate rose to a six-month high, Bloomberg News reported.
“Job gains are slowing down a bit, but it’s not such a concern,” Scott Brown, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based chief economist for Raymond James Financial Inc., told Bloomberg. “What matters is that the job market is getting tighter. The fundamentals look strong for consumer spending.”
The jobless rate was projected to hold at 4.9%, according to a Bloomberg survey median, close to the lowest since 2007.
Warehousing and storage positions increased by 5,300, and support activity jobs for transportation rose by 3,300, according to BLS.
Estimates of 87 economists in a Bloomberg survey ranged from gains of 125,000 to 220,000. August initially was reported as an increase of 151,000, Bloomberg reported.
For-hire trucking employment fell by 3,600. But the overall number is a good and closer level of growth we should expect going forward. https://t.co/FKTC0pG85L — Bob Costello (@ATAEconBob) October 7, 2016
