As the U.S. economy slowly recovers and unemployment drops to 8.2%, and 120,000 non-farming jobs are added to the U.S. workforce, trucking is down 1,900 jobs from the previous month.
The numbers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released Friday, April 6, 2012, do not reflect all payroll employment in for-hire trucking, nor do they include trucking-related jobs in other industries, such as a truck driver for a private fleet. The numbers also do not reflect the total amount of hiring. They only reflect the number of employees paid during a specified payroll period during the month.
The numbers may simply be a reflection of the turnover rate among trucking jobs– those between trucking jobs. The turnover rate among truckers is said to be as high as 120%.
Although the numbers may seem discouraging to those going into the industry, the agency’s estimate for March is actually 1,000 jobs higher than the figures it originally reported for February.
According to Overdrive Magazine, “Payroll employment in for-hire trucking is up by 41,400 jobs, or 3.4%, from March 2011. Employment is up by 98,300 jobs, or 8%, from the bottom in March 2010, but it remains 120,900 jobs, or 8.3%, below the peak in January 2007.”