The Transportation Job Market

The Job Market
I’m sure we are all tired of hearing about the job market these days, even if it’s just in transportation.  With something that fluctuates so frequently, it’s easy to get annoyed at the mere mention of it.  Unemployment percentages fluctuating and your financial stability hanging in the balance of geriatric politicians, it’s a lot.  However, for both the transportation industry and the job market at large, things seem to be looking up, at least a bit.  The American job market held steady from November to December, with the unemployment rate staying at 3.7%, and with 216,000 jobs being added, which were both better than the respective estimates of 3.8% and 170,000.  

The Transportation Market
In the transportation industry, trucking jobs rose by 3,300 in December 2023, according to FreightWaves.  Despite a large loss of trucking jobs in the summer of 2023, mostly caused by the closure of LTL giant Yellow in August, a relatively lighter loss in October than predicted offset this.  The heavy losses in the summer were also mitigated by the growth of the last two months (November and December.)  Even though things seem to be evening out, it is still a far cry from the peak of June 2022.  Back then, there were 1,933,400 active trucking jobs filled in the US.  While the job market in the transportation industry is still uneven, it will be interesting to see what 2024 brings.  

–Jack