Trucking continued months-long employment rally in December

CCJ‘s Indicators rounds up the latest reports on trucking business indicators on rates, freight, equipment, the economy and more.

For the eighth straight month, the for-hire trucking industry added jobs on a month-to-month basis in December, according to the Department of Labor’s monthly Employment Situation Report. Trucking’s addition of 2,900 jobs came amid strong employment growth in the U.S. economy, which added 312,000 jobs in December — one of the largest gains of 2018 and beating expectations.

The country’s unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9 percent, up from November’s 3.7 percent, due to an increase in job seekers.

Total employment in the for-hire trucking industry was 1.4969 million in December, according to the DOL. Save for April, the industry has now added jobs on a month-to-month basis in every month since last September 2017, with total employment growing by more than 44,000 jobs in that stretch.

On a year-over-year basis, industry employment was up 36,600 jobs from December 2017.

Among prominent freight producing sectors, the construction industry added 38,000 jobs in November, according to the DOL, while the manufacturing sector added 32,000 jobs.