Truck transportation experiences third-largest decline in jobs in a decade

Outside of big drop when pandemic began, February’s decrease largest going back to 2013

Truck transportation jobs took a big drop in February (Photo: Jim Allen)

In February, the trucking industry experienced unprecedented job losses, with only two comparable instances in the past decade. February data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed a decline of 8,500 jobs, with only April 2020 and March 2013 showing larger one-month declines. The pandemic has resulted in three months of job losses in the trucking industry, with the largest one-month loss of 3,100 jobs occurring in March 2020. Prior to February, the sector's employment had only increased. David Spencer, vice president of market intelligence at Arrive Logistics, attributed the decline to a reduction in shippers' volume expectations.

The downward trend is anticipated to continue over the next few months as carriers provide fewer commitments, resulting in a decline in contract rates and prices for used equipment. Despite recent pressure to increase ranks in the wake of the East Palestine derailment, the BLS report includes a decline in warehouse jobs and a small drop in rail jobs.

The seasonally adjusted number of warehouse jobs in February was 1,929,400, a decrease from 1,944,900 the previous month. The number of rail jobs decreased by 200 to 148,900, but remains above the 145,800 recorded in February 2022. Recent gains have caused the employment total to break out of a range that had remained between 145,000 and 147,000 for several years.

The revised January total of 1,608,400 jobs represents a decrease of 6,300 jobs compared to the initial BLS report. The result was that the industry was informed in early February that the truck transportation sector had 1,614,700 jobs in January. However, the revision of January's numbers and the decline in February resulted in a total of 14,800 fewer jobs. The number of non-seasonally adjusted truck transportation jobs decreased by 10,600 to 1,575,800 in February.

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