The number of heavy truck or tractor-trailer drivers employed increased last year for the first time since 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The number of heavy truck drivers in the U.S. rose 2.9 percent in 2011 to 1.51 million, after falling 18.4 percent from 2008 through 2010, the BLS data show.
That means U.S. employers hired nearly 42,000 heavy truck drivers from May 2010 to May 2011, according to data released by BLS on March 27.
That’s still 16.1 percent short of the nearly 1.8 million tractor-trailer drivers employed in the U.S. in 2008 ” the peak year for truck driver employment.