Trucking employment down in Sept from August, mostly flat over 12 mos

The October report that would have been published November 7 will not be released because of the failure to collect the data during the shutdown needed to produce the monthly numbers. The November report would normally be scheduled for December 5. But a BLS calendar for future releases has it listed for Tuesday, December 16. 

The truck transportation segment classified by the BLS shed 34,500 jobs in August 2022, when Yellow closed. In February of this year, the decline in truck transportation jobs was 8,000. May 2024 saw a decline of 6,900 jobs. The reported drop for September is the next largest in that time span.

But with up and down changes since then, the number of truck transportation jobs is barely higher than it was a year ago, just 900 jobs more than it was in September 2024.

All figures are on a seasonally-adjusted basis.

Economist Aaron Terrazas said future declines may be in the offing in truck transportation. “We should expect a bigger drop in trucking employment when October data are released, as a result of expanded enforcement of English proficiency requirements that began last month,” he said in an email to FreightWaves.

Regulatory action also figured into comments by David Spencer, vice president of market intelligence at Arrive Logistics. “With further job losses in October likely being a result of the FMCSA ruling on non-domiciled CDLs, the numbers point to what could be a rapidly deteriorating capacity environment,” Spencer said in an email. “With tariff front-loading complete and the addition of new government regulations, it’s been more difficult for certain demographics of drivers to continue operating without risk of being put out of service. Even though the courts have temporarily eliminated enforcement of the ruling on non-domiciled CDLs, the damage may already be done.”

Warehouses: a long way from the peak

Meanwhile, jobs in the warehouse sector continued a steady decline that has now seen that total fall almost 40,000 jobs below where it was a year ago.

The total of 1,812,300 warehouse jobs was down 10,700 jobs from August. That wasn’t even the biggest decline this year; a drop of 11,000 jobs was recorded in March.

Warehouse jobs were 1,850,800 in September 2024, marking a 12-month fall of 38,500 jobs in 12 months. 

More striking is the fact that the September total is the lowest since 1,830,900 jobs in November 2021, when the sector was ramping up for its gigantic expansion during the post-COVID ecommerce boom. That surge peaked in April 2022 with 1,942,100 jobs, which means warehouse employment has shed 129,800 jobs since then. That is a decline of 6.6%. 

“From 2010 to 2022, the warehousing sector was a major motor of employment growth — adding 1.3 million jobs; since then, warehousing employment has stagnated,” Terrazas said. “It’s increasingly clear that productivity gains and investment in technology across the warehousing sector have put a sudden stop to the job opportunities that e-commerce once-upon-a-time created.” 

In other highlights from the report:

• Rail jobs slipped below the 152,000 mark for the first time since February 2023. They’ve been as high as 157,900 in March and April, but came in at 151,900 jobs. 

• Hourly earnings for nonsupervisory employees in truck transportation were $31.30 in August. That data is on a one-month lag from the broader employment numbers. The $31.30 is a record and is up $1.38 from a year ago. Hourly pay was $30.98 in July. Weekly hours worked edged up to 40.6 from 40.5. They were 40 a year ago, but always bounce up and down over the 40-hour number.  

• A record pay level also was recorded for warehouse workers, coming in at $25.17. That is up from $24.43 a year ago and $24.87 in July. They’re working more hours also: average weekly hours at the warehouses was 39.5. That’s up more than 2 hours just since May, when they were 37.4.

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