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Trucking Industry Ends Year-Long Streak of Job Gains
Even as job growth overall rebounded in March, the hiring streak in the trucking industry has cooled. Labor Department figures indicated that freight carriers cut payrolls by 1,200 positions in March, the first decline in trucking employment since April 2018.
FreightWaves reported that March’s contraction ended a stretch that saw nearly 35,000 jobs added in the industry. In addition, growth from February was revised downward, showing that only 100 jobs were added within trucking.
That being the case, FreightWaves noted that trucking employment is still up 1.9% year over year, outpacing the 1.7% growth in the overall economy over the same time period.
The Wall Street Journal reported that trucking company Covenant Transportation Group recent lowered its first-quarter profit forecast, citing weaker-than-expected freight volumes during Q1.
“We attribute the softer demand to factors such as late 2018 inventory growth in advance of the perceived impact of tariffs, the effects of the partial government shutdown on spending and extended periods of inclement weather,” Covenant said.
In the broader transportation and logistics sector, though, hiring was up last month after payrolls shrunk in February. Companies in the sector added 7,300 jobs in March, after cutting 4,700 positions the previous month.
The WSJ reported, however, that in one of the sectors that feeds industrial and logistics demand—manufacturing—employment fell last month. U.S. factories cut 6,000 jobs in March, the WSJ reported, even as a separate report showed manufacturing activity expanding both domestically and in China.
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- ◦Economy
