Trucking Adds 3,200 Jobs; Unemployment Rate Falls to 5-Year Low of 6.6%

Trucking accounted for 3,200 of the 113,000 jobs added in January, and the U.S. unemployment rate fell to a five-year low of 6.6%, the Labor Department reported Feb. 7.The job increase was below economists’ forecasts of 180,000, and employment gains for December and January were revised upward by a total of 34,000, Bloomberg News reported.
The transportation and warehousing sector, which includes trucking, added 10,000 positions in January, after a similar gain in December that had originally been reported as a small decline.The trucking industry’s 100-jobs gain in December was unrevised.The unemployment rate is the lowest since October 2008. Analysts had forecast it to hold at 6.7%, Bloomberg reported.More than half the added jobs came from the construction and manufacturing industries, both of which benefit the trucking industry.
Manufacturing added 21,000 jobs — more than twice economists’ forecast — following an 8,000 increase in December. Construction companies added 48,000 workers, after a 22,000 decline.