Transportation sector unemployment still lingers above pre-pandemic rate
August rate of 6.4% was 50% lower than the same month in 2020, but covid recovery not complete.
Unemployment in the transportation sector fell steeply from this time a year ago, but still remains stubbornly above pre-pandemic levels, federal statistics show.
The unemployment rate in the U.S. transportation sector was 6.4% (not seasonally adjusted) in August 2021, according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That rate was down more than 50% from August 2020’s 13% but remains above the 4.8% rate in pre-pandemic August 2019.
That unemployment rate is far below the transportation sector’s Covid-19 peak of 15.7% set in both May and July 2020. By comparison, the overall U.S. unemployment rate hit a Covid-19 peak of 14.4% in April 2020.
Looking at the entire U.S. economy, the overall U.S. unemployment rate in August was 5.2% (seasonally adjusted), down 38% from August 2020’s 8.4%.