Another 7,500 trucking industry jobs disappeared during October, despite economic experts heralding the end of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
More than twice as many trucking jobs were lost in October than the month before, totaling 11,100 for the two-month period. According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, trucking has dropped 204,800 jobs since 2007.
The nation’s unemployment rate jumped above 10 percent, a rate not seen since 1983, with almost 16 million people reported unable to find work. But the surge in unemployment has been steeper this time around, reaching the current 10.2 percent mark after starting at 4.9 percent in December 2007. In comparison, at the starting point of July 1981, unemployment was already at 7.2 percent, requiring a lesser job loss rate to reach 10 percent.
Despite the economy’s reported 3.5 percent annual rate in growth during the July-September period, many employers remain hesitant to hire. This trend worries economists, as it indicates a jobless recovery, said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist for the investment firm Miller, Tabak & Co. And an ongoing high unemployment rate could work against the recovering economy by hindering consumer spending, which makes up 70 percent of the economy.
Though October’s numbers were lower than the prior month, down from September’s 219,000 lost jobs to 190,000, the latter month’s figure was higher than economists had estimated. And the number those out of work for six months or more tied with last month’s record of 5.6 million, making up 35.6 percent of the unemployed.
October marked the 22nd consecutive month of jobs lost, the longest period in 70 years of record-keeping. The reluctance to hire could push the unemployment rate to 10.5 percent next year, economists said.
Source: TheTrucker.com: Jobless rate tops 10 percent; trucking loses 7,500
Image: ROSS TAYLOR / HARTFORD COURANT
The employment in 2007 was 4 % real unemployment didn’t start picking up until the Democrats announced there huge tax increase and Socialistic control of Health Care.
The rescission could be turned around by announcing new tax cuts and leaving the greatest health care in the world alone. Your information is slanted by the Obama administration which wants to blame the recession on Bush. The accusal unemployment is closer to 19% today.
Jeff,Jeff,Jeff, aside from the fact that you can’t spell, you must be an east coast republican. Please do some homework and quit listening to Limbaugh. The current economic crisis was caused by your brother bush and all his moron cronies. We had 8 years of peace and prosperity with Clinton. A surplus of money in the bank when g.w.boofer took over with cheney as his brain. Obama has had only 9 months to try and fix all the stupidity the republicans have inflicted on this poor country. Quit using your computer if you can’t spell, as is the case with most of your conservative moron friends.
Are you sure we had the “money in the bank”? From what ive read, Clinton forced the banks to lend to risky borrowers. So at the time maybe the numbers looked good, but sooner or later they would come to the reality that we were really just looking good. When the banks fell werent the democrats in control of the senate? Bush couldnt pass any laws without their approval. So just go gloat about your Obama care and wonder were your money is going.
While my comments are awaiting approval I must add a few more to fuel the fire. The companies that advertise they can guarantee you a job in the HIGH PAYING trucking industry, have to be censored somehow to include the amount of $ the prospective driver is going to make before signing an employment agreement for a specific amount of time. If it’s such a good deal, why should the employer require a person to sign an agreement to work for a specific amount of time? Because as soon as the person goes to work for XYZ Trucking he or she is going to realize that they have made a huge mistake. They are obligated to fulfill their contract or forfeit what little they were promised, (very little) and move on to something else. Its a sad situation and not good for the trucking industry. The old saying goes, If you have it, It came on a truck. It’s true, and that truck had a driver. A real live human being with a mortgage and a family.
Doug Doug Doug….seems you too are brainwashed with the Obamanation admin crap!
For it is true Clinton was good and Bush was bad both are far from what his country needs, re-patriate yourself and get back in touch with our countries values and spend less time believing that anyone in government is going help anyone but themselves, they are ALL corrupt and greedy people with play for pay in their blood.
Woody AND Jeff –
Ya know what? Maybe since it is so terrible living in an American government, you should move somewhere else where you have the the same freedoms and amenities you have here. Or better yet… maybe YOU should run for office and straighten all these political officials out.
I am not a Republican nor am I a Democrat. Fact is, I have no political affiliation whatsoever. But I will say this… BOTH parties are to blame for our current situation. In case SOMEONE overlooked it, we have Republicans AND Democrats in the House and Senate. It is actually a farce to think that the President is THE MAN. On the contrary…. he may be the Leader of the country, but he is also kept in check by “the system”. Before you guys decide to jump all over that statement, I do realize that he is in a position to affect the way the country’s overall situation develops.
You want to start tossing blame around? Begin looking in the direction of the major corporations such as financial industries, petroleum companies, and the health providers. Are you really narrowminded enough to think that Bush or Obama told the hospitals to charge $9.00 for an Over The Counter Tylenol? Do you really think that Bush or Obama were in the room when the bank executives decided that they could no longer work toward resolution so the blue collar worker could keep his / her home? Let’s begin to associate the trouble with the troublemakers.
You’ve heard of the “trickle-down effect”. You are both obviously intelligent people. What Bush did, and what Obama is doing is “announcing” the plan that his staff of advisors put together, and he approved. For anyone to think that either President was doing all of this on their own is nothing shy of ludicrous. There are many variables involved here.
But you know what, it beats the heck out of living in China, huh?
Forgive the intrusion of a trucker from another country.
I have worked and trucked in many countries, including eastcoast USA and eastern bloc Europe. I loved trucking in all the countries I worked in. I no longer truck, the pay became too poor and of course the hours are the longest of any job.
My reason for butting in here, is to observe that where ever I’ve worked, the complaints are always the same. I also wanted to say that there are great things and not so great things about every country. The politicos don’t seem to have a great effect on things, certainly less than the money men and accountants! We are all effected by the world economy that suports us as well as kicking us in the butt from time to time.
When I worked the East Coast, I learned very quickly never to criticise any aspect of the USA. Maybe that is a national issue? Maybe therefore we shouldn’t criticise or assume life is better or worse elsewhere. It might be or it might not, only our own experience counts.
We should stick together, support our unemployed buddies however we can. Keep them in the loop and let them know when jobs are returning. The politicos won’t help us, we must do that ourselves.
hahaha yeah, obama will save us! cant wate to get him the hell out of here. and clinton? clinton did nothing to help us. clinton is the main reson were in this mess. it just took this long to catch up with us. and yes bush was bad!
AS A TRUCKER LOOKING FOR WORK,WITH 13 PLUS YEARS.I TOOK TIME OFF TO TAKE CARE OF PERSONAL ISSUES..I APPLIED FOR SEVERAL JOBS,GOT REPLIES AS WELL..COMAPNIES HAVE OPENINGS BUT ARE UNWILLING TO HIRE..NOTE AFTER 6 MONTHS OUT OF TRUCKING YOU PRETTY MUCH SCREW YOURSELF..YOU BECOME A BLIGHT TO THE INDUSTRY. EXPERIENCE DONT MEAN SQUAT..AFTER A YEAR OFF FROM WHAT I LEARNED MAY AS WELL LOOK FOR ANOTHER LINE OF WORK
This is true, in the trucking industry if you take at least 6 months off you are considered a green trucker and have to go through retard school. I have seen what has come out of truck driving schools (retard schools), and quite frankly its full of post-office workers thinking they are going to be out on the open road seeing the country and all the crap. What they don’t realize is there are truckers out here that its their life, not just a paycheck. These corperate office post-employees are killing the average trucker out here. I been trucking for a few years…lol, long enough to see that companies are looking for that driver that doesn’t know any better. They want these guys so they can pay them crappy wages, we are talking lower than minimum wage here. Force them out for months on end, with crappy equipment. But as long as you do what your told these companies leave you alone. You request something and all of a sudden your on their crap list. Its these drivers here that are maken it hard for a trucker to find a decent job to pay bills and stay healthy and a live.
i would like to leave a note for the department of transportation,
i wish you all would look into the training programs for the companies that train new drivers out here in the road. i was trained by two differant companies and have encountered sexual herassment,my logs falsified,and i have corrected myself by memory, the way the trainers drive themselves, some are yahoo’s and trying to train others like them,some company drivers use paper logs and passing off the quamcom as there logs. some trainers drive on the students logs and falsify the students log and it gets the student in trouble. some trainers can’t even drive themselves for more than 2 hours before falling asleep behind the wheel. the training programs out here on the road is not what the schools teach the students, i think that d.o.t. should teach the student not the companies, cause you can teach the correct way the driving should be done, and the correct why logs should be done, this would also stop the bull crap happening to the lady drivers,you would be teaching the correct way on how to take a truck down a hill at the correct speed and the correct gears. you have company drivers not training students the correct way to do any thing and passing them on the drivers tests and the company giving these new students trucks to drive. i have seen companies pass students that can’t drive or back a rig, they just pass the student to get them out of there hair. the companies are not training the students properly and this is why we have so many drivers having accidents and burning of brakes. i personally don’t think that a truck with 80 thousand pounds should have a cruise control on it, this makes a truck very dangerious cause when brakes are hit the truck is kicked into a nuteral gear and flies into what ever is in front of them or flies down hills.why don’t you put an officer in the training program of every company out here and see for yourself how we are tought and treated.
Who Are You? I have never experienced the kind of gender discrimination you have, except on the CB where the voices can remain anonymous. DOT treats me the same as everyone else, no better – no worse. You must be younger and better looking than I am.
I have been an over the road “mentor/trainer” . When you are out in the truck with a trainer, they are there to help and advise and let you get some practice doing it yourself, not doing it for you. Maybe you are not doing so well because you are looking at the glass half empty. Chuck Swindal says, “Life is 10% what happens to you, 90% your attitude toward it”.
This is a hard job, and the economy is in an awful slump, but if you can smile, it makes everyone wonder what you’re up to! Here’s hoping the road gets a little smoother for you.
All I can say is get rid of both the dems and the reps parties. I did not and I never will vote for either corrupt parties and that’s all I have to say about that.
Nothing will get better in the trucking industry until people start voicing their views and concerns to those that can actually change things, our Members of Congress. For those who think the President of the United States arbitrarily writes and enacts laws, the people who actually do that would be your US Representative (you have one of them) and your Senators (you have two of them). As it stands, the numbers of drivers who actually do that are less than the numbers of lobbyists employed by the larger carriers and the ATA. From what Congressman Sensenbrenner (my US Representative) tells me, on average each House Member hears from one actual trucker annually. Sensenbrenner, as well as Senators Johnson and Kohl, hear from me in one form or another weekly, mostly on trucking issues. I am the only trucker they ever hear from. Prior to my moving to Wisconsin, according to what I was told, they never heard a whisper from truckers.
That’s pretty sad, when you think about it, given that there are 3.5 million truck drivers across the United States right now, and another quarter million or so unemployed truckers who actually have the time to drop a letter or email to their elected officials. Of course, you’ll hear lots of complaints about the trucking industry in driver lounges, truck stop diners, and on the CB. But, as it turns out, it would appear truckers are too busy fighting amongst themselves for what few scraps our corporate masters throw our way to bother to tell someone who not only might care, but who can actually do something about the problems.
After over 16 years, I’m out of trucking for good. Despite my many years of experience, my excellent safety and work records, glowing written comments from customers and the general public to employers, having all the endorsements, having my TWIC, etc, it would seem the preference industry wide is for those with the least experience, those who are unqualified or disqualified from operating commercial vehicle, and even those willing to drive with just a Class C (the latter I found several instances of with just about every medium and large carrier, especially ATA member carriers).
I’ve had some pretty bizarre excuses for why I’m being denied a job by carriers across the country. Of course, my favorite still rests with Millis Transfer, a trainng company that hires drivers fresh out of one of the thousands of CDL mills, who claimed I did not have enough experience (I have 16 times the average experience of their drivers). Of course, when Knight Transportation said no to me, it was because I had been unemployed for more than 6 weeks, even though they are actively hiring CDL mill graduates who have been unemployed for more than a year. One carrier claimed they only hire drivers who can repeatedly lift and carry 250 lbs. One wouldn’t even consider me because I can’t “duck walk” under a 42″ high barrier (I wear a brace on my left ankle now, thanks entirely to my last BFI employer), something I’ve never had to do in any job except when I was a soldier.
The rest refused to give any reason. In every case, each of the carriers has serious issues with their SMS scores, particularly in the areas of Unsafe Driving and Driver Fitness. You would be amazed at how many of the major carriers repeatedly will put someone with only a Class C non-commercial license behind the wheel, and in two cases drivers who never even had a learner’s permit in their lives.
Fortunately, I do have this disability, so the opportunity exists to return to school and finish up a couple of semesters needed to obtain my chemistry degree. There are a quarter million truckers who are unemployed, who aren’t so lucky, who dedicated their entire working lives to an industry that dropped them like dead flies just to make their quarterly financial statements look better.
Something to think about… How much experience does that trucker behind the car your spouse is driving your kids to school in have, and do they even have a license to begin with?
It’s something I think about every day now, every time I or one of my step kids has to drive to a doctor appointment or work. Beginning next month, we will be installing cameras in our vehicles, to record the insanity that goes on around us on the road, with a focus on truckers who think the rules of the road simply does not apply to them, but does for everyone else. That bunch has always been a particular favorite of mine, and I intend to begin putting videos up on the Internet this summer of the type of drivers carriers today prefer to hire.
To those still working in trucking, I wish you luck, you’ll need it. But, if you really want to change things, start by calling your Congress-critters, as well as your state legislators, and all those appointed officials that never once drove a truck, but think they know how best you should do it.
Until you do, nothing will get better, it will only get worse.
Sorry for the long rant.