Trucking Adds 400 Jobs in October; Unemployment Rate Declines to 5%
The trucking industry added 400 jobs in October as the unemployment rate declined to 5%, the Labor Department reported Nov. 5.
The transportation and warehousing sector, which includes trucking,Ěýlost 2,100 positions.
The 271,000 overall increase in employment was the largest gain this year and followed a 173,000 job gain the prior month. The unemployment rate is at the lowest level since April 2008, Bloomberg News reported.
The rise in trucking jobs follows a 2,800 decline in September that was revised from 4,000. Total transportation services and warehousing jobs rose by 4,900 last month.
The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey called for an 185,000 increase in overall employment.
“It’s a solid labor market,” Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, told Bloomberg News. “The report is pretty good across the board. December is now a very high likelihood for the Fed to hike rates.”
The number of Americans working part-time because of a weak economy fell to 5.7 million in October, the lowest since June 2008.
The underemployment rate —Ěýwhich includes part-time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want to work but have given up looking — fell to 9.8%, the lowest since May 2008, Bloomberg reported.
The participation rate, which shows the share of working-age people in the labor force, held at 62.4%.
