U.S. Economy Continues Growth
The for-hire trucking industry added 2,300 jobs in July on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the monthly employment report released Aug. 1 by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The trucking industry has seen solid job growth as well as the United States in 2014.
The United States economy added 209,000 non-farm jobs in July, BLS reports, but the national unemployment rate rose a tenth of a percent to 6.2 percent. Last month’s 6.1 percent was the lowest the unemployment rate had been since September 2008. However, the U.S. economy has now seen six straight months of strong job gains. This is an excellent sign that the economy is stable and growing despite recent falls in stocks.
For-hire trucking now has 1.4087 million payroll jobs, according to BLS, up 29,100 (2.1 percent) from last July. It’s also up 179,000 jobs (14.5 percent) from March 2010′s bottom in the most recent recession. All of the numbers are great, but we’re still off from 2007. Trucking’s job gains in May and June also have been positively revised, with May gaining an additional 500 jobs than previously reported and June added 1,400.
The Labor Department numbers for trucking reflect all payroll employment in for-hire trucking, but they don’t include trucking-related jobs in other industries, such as a truck driver for a private fleet. We see these numbers as positive, so private trucking jobs are more then likely in the green as well.
Total transportation and warehousing employment grew by 7,900 jobs, following the 16,600 added last month. Also in July, manufacturing added 28,000 jobs and construction added 22,000. Residential growth has sparked construction jobs, which have added over 200K jobs in 2014 alone.
Transportation stocks have grown well in 2014, led by companies such as Copa Holdings S. A. and FedEx. All indicators point to a strong growth as we still have a few months of good weather ahead.
