While the U.S. economy struggled in August, it still saw another consecutive growth in jobs. The U.S. economy generated a lower-than-expected 173,000 new jobs in August, the government reported Friday.
The transportation sector gained more than 7,000 jobs in August, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. As for the trucking industry, Friday’s report showed a small gain of 700 jobs for August and unemployment fell to 5.1% according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Labor Department.
Trucks had the second-smallest increase within the transportation sector, next to pipeline transportation at 200 additional jobs. Rail transportation had the largest job increase of more than 2,000. Only two subsectors experienced losses in August: Water transportation and Warehousing/storage both lost 1,000 jobs.
The trucking industry will end the month at a seasonally adjusted 1,458,800 jobs, an increase of 39,300 jobs over August 2014. Total nonfarm payroll employment was up by 173,000 jobs for the month, but down from the 12-month average of 247,000 jobs gained per month.
The best news from the day was unemployment numbers, which were down to 7 year lows. The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since April 2008 and the number of unemployed persons in the country lowered to 8 million. In the last 12 months, unemployment has dropped by 1 percent or 1.5 million.
The number of unemployed for less than 5 weeks decreased by 393,000 to 2.1 million people in the month while the number of long-term unemployed – those jobless for 27 weeks of more – held at 2.2 million.
Average hourly earnings grew by 8 cents in August, to $25.09. Among the unemployed, 27.7%, or 2.2m, had been unemployed 27 weeks or more, essentially unchanged from the prior month. The employment-population ratio, at 59.4%, was essentially unchanged.
The long-term unemployed made up 27.7% of all unemployment and but has seen a decline in the past 12 months of 779,000 people.
