Trucking Industry Adds Jobs for Third Straight Month

Trucking employment last month grew at its fastest pace since it began to recover in March, and that mode led a broad gain in May that extended across all freight transportation modes.

The Labor Department said raw payroll levels -- those not adjusted for seasonal norms over the past decade -- showed a 15,000 increase in trucking employment for May. That also marks three straight months of job growth for trucking, the first time that has happened since the financial meltdown of September 2008, according to Labor Department records.

Since trucking employment hit its recession low of 1,193,200 in February, the largest transport mode has added 32,000 workers in the past three months to 1,225,200, Labor said. President Obama visited a truck dealership June 4 to underscore a recovery in demand for its products.

The information is from actual employment figures reported to Labor by companies, rather than those adjusted for seasonal effects. Some economists say the severity of the recession disrupted normal seasonal behavior in late 2008 and 2009, while the unadjusted figures that reflect raw payroll levels can help track the pace of job recovery from the trough early this year.

However, transport industries also expanded their employment, though more mildly even when adjusting for traditional springtime jog gains.

The whole transportation and warehousing sector increased by 39,600 actual jobs last month, Labor said. Warehouse and storage firms, which make up the second-largest segment in that category, added 2,300 workers to reach nearly 640,000.

Rail transportation employment, which is dominated by Class I freight lines but includes short lines and intercity passenger operations, rose by 900 to 216,800. The largest freight carriers in the group have been adding jobs since January.

But the May increase in Labor Department report was the smallest this year for railroads, and could reflect a slowdown in the pace of some rail cargoes in recent weeks.

Labor said water transportation, mostly barging and coastal freight operations but including passenger ferries, boosted payrolls by 3,300 to 64,500 in May. Air jobs are mainly passenger-related but include belly cargo and all-cargo operations; total air transport employment rose 3,500 to 456,300.