Trucking Loses 6,300 Jobs in June as Overall Hiring Rises
Trucking lost 6,300 jobs in June as overall hiring increased by 287,000, the Labor Department reported July 8.
The transportation and warehousing sector, which includes trucking, lost 9,400 positions. The jobless rate rose to 4.9%, as more people entered the labor force, Bloomberg News reported.
The overall rise in payrolls follows a two-month lull and is the largest gain since October. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for an 180,000 increase.
The loss of trucking jobs in June follows a decline of 2,200 positions in May. Total transportation services and warehousing jobs, however, rose by 3,600 last month.
“If you take the last three months and smooth these numbers out — which is really what you should do — employment conditions are improving, but there’s no question there’s, to some extent, a slowdown in the improvement,” Hugh Johnson, chairman at Hugh Johnson, told Bloomberg. “That’s to be expected when you reach what I would argue is full employment.”
Factories increased payrolls by 14,000 after a decline of 16,000 positions the month before, the latest indication that the industry is stabilizing after damage wrought last year by a strengthening dollar and plunging oil prices. Employment at construction companies was unchanged after falling in May, Bloomberg reported.
Payroll employment increases by 287,000 in June; unemployment rate rises to 4.9% https://t.co/1Y9cSWJUIB #JobsReport #BLSdata — BLS-Labor Statistics (@BLS_gov) July 8, 2016
