The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t make it easy for everyday people to know precisely how many truckers are working and how many are collecting unemployment benefits. But the recently released May Jobs Report, hailed as a national employment win, paints an unusually depressing picture for the truck transportation sector. It appears the number of CDL professionals without a job has topped the national average.
Many of the mainstream media outlets widely focused on the statistics showing the U.S. economy adding more positions than predicted. Economists expected 190,000 new jobs and the Bureau’s report indicates 272,000 were added in May. High-fives all around — or not. As outlets such as the financially-focused Wall Street Journal pointed out, “the unemployment rate edged up to 4 percent, presenting a mixed view of a labor market.”
The unemployment rate has been inching higher in recent months, with many holding their breath that it could hit 4 percent. Although 4 percent unemployment doesn’t mean the sky is falling, some believe even that relatively low number involves a bit of smoke and mirrors.
“The shiny, new paint job was a significant 272,000 increase. Although nearly half of that was government and government-related jobs, that’s what the non-farm payrolls showed. However, when you lift up the hood, what you see is an incredible 408,000 job loss from the household survey,” Larry Kudlow of Fox Business said.
The Household Survey is also conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to poll how many Americans are working. It painted a gloomy forecast consistent with another detail of the Job Report used for mainstream media reporting. As Kudlow noted, the civilian labor force retreated by a troubling 250,000 jobs. In other words, taxpayer-funded jobs increased while private-sector positions declined enough to tick the unemployment rate to 4 percent. Caught up in the private versus government jobs seesaw are full-time truck transportation jobs.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, seasonally adjusted truck driver jobs declined by about 5,400. Full-time truck driving positions dropped by approximately 29,000 year-over-year in May. When combining the entire trucking and warehousing industries together — a common practice of the Bureau — the overall unemployment rate reportedly stood at 5.5 percent in May. That figure surged from 4.7 percent last month and a recent low-water mark of 3.3 percent in June 2023. Adding insult to injury, average work hours slipped to a 2024 low of 37.8. If there’s any good news, wages have continued to improve, based on the most recent data.
Sources:
https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs-report-may-unemployment-economy-2aee1a4f
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/truck-transportation-jobs-down-may-153203894.html
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/truck-transportation-jobs-down-in-may-total-now-matches-november
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