The August employment report released by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the for-hire trucking industry added 2,300 jobs in July on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Revisions have also been made to previous employment reports regarding May and June, with 500 jobs being added to May’s original count and 1,400 jobs being added to June’s.
The growth in the for-hire trucking industry reflects the overall growth of the U.S. economy in recent months. In July, the U.S. economy as a whole added 209,000 non-farm jobs with the unemployment rate dropping to 6.1 percent, the lowest it has been since the recession hit the industry in September 2008. Although the national unemployment rate has since risen to 6.2 percent, the U.S. economy has seen six straight months of steady job gains, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The new report shows that for-hire trucking now provides 1.4087 million payroll jobs, up 29,100 (2.1 percent) from July of last year. Though the trucking industry is still 52,700 jobs shy of its peak in January of 2007, recent and prospective growth suggests that these jobs will soon come back.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported employment rate growth in other trucking related industries. According to the report, total transportation and warehousing employment grew by 7,900 jobs in July on top of 16,600 added in June. In July, the manufacturing industry added 28,000 jobs while construction added 22,000.
On top of the positive growth, other gains are being made in the trucking industry that are not reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report does not include information on trucking related jobs in other industries, such as a truck driver for a private fleet. Nor does the report completely reflect the total amount of hiring in July since it only considers the number of employees paid during a specified payroll period during the month.
As the trucking industry continues to grow and more jobs are added, it can be difficult for trucking companies to maintain sufficient cash flow as they expand and hire new drivers. Instead of turning down new loads and keeping drivers from jobs, factor freight bills and receive immediate working capital. By submitting freight bills to a transportation factoring company, your trucking company will have the cash on hand to haul more lucrative loads and hire new drivers.