Transport, warehousing employment gains in May fueled by warehousing, truck, couriers

The transportation and warehousing sector added 19,000 jobs in May over the prior month, with the gains distributed somewhat evenly among warehousing, trucking, and messenger and courier sectors, according to seasonally adjusted Labor Department data released on Friday.

The warehousing sector added about 7,000 jobs, truck transportation added 7,000, and the messenger and courier category added 5,000, according to data from the agency's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). About 156,000 transportation and warehousing jobs have been added from May 2017 to last month, BLS said. There were virtually no month-to-month gains in any of the other sub-sectors such as air, pipeline, air, and water transportation, according to the data.

All told, there were 5.3 million transportation and warehousing workers on U.S. non-farm payrolls last month, up 18.7 percent from the prior month, BLS said.

According to the data, 1.47 million persons were employed on truck transport payrolls in May, up 6.6 percent from April. It was unclear from the data how many of those were truck driving jobs. About 1.031 million workers were employed in warehousing and storage, also a 6.6 percent gain from April's numbers, BLS said.

Tractor-trailer driver employment is expected to rise 6 percent between 2016 and 2026, according to BLS forecasts. That is about the same projected pace of growth for all occupations, the agency predicted.