Due to businesses gearing up for impending tariffs, there was a significant rise in trucking jobs in March; however, the introduction of these tariffs may reverse these gains in the upcoming months.
Recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that the economy added nearly 10,000 trucking jobs in March. This increase not only interrupts the downward trend that started in January 2023 but also represents the largest monthly growth since January 2022, which saw a similar increase of just over 10,000 jobs.
Revised figures indicate that the initial months of 2025 were not as detrimental for trucking employment as earlier reports had suggested. Instead of a reduction of 1,700 jobs in January and February, updated statistics show only a loss of 500 jobs. With the rise in employment for March, trucking jobs have increased by over 9,000, although these gains may be temporary.
The surge in trucking employment is likely linked to anticipated tariffs. In early March, President Donald Trump delayed tariffs on various Mexican and Canadian imports for a month, suggesting that reciprocal tariffs would be implemented globally in April.
This may have led many businesses to stockpile imports in anticipation of tariffs, increasing the demand for trucking jobs. Now that warehouses are fully stocked and the tariffs are in effect, the demand for trucking freight may decline, potentially affecting the new jobs created in March.
In a broader context, trucking jobs are down by over 5,000 compared to last March, and there are 62,000 fewer truck drivers compared to the peak employment in July 2022.
When considering all jobs in the transportation sector, employment rose by nearly 23,000 jobs in February, primarily driven by significant increases in couriers and messengers (up 15,800) as well as the surge in truck drivers. There were additional job gains in support activities for transportation (up 3,900) and transit/ground passenger transport (up 2,300), while employment in warehouses and storage declined by more than 9,000 jobs.
On a month-to-month basis, earnings improved in March. Average weekly pay for all employees in the transportation and warehousing sector increased by $10, reaching $1,194.58. Compared to March 2024, hourly wages rose from $30.47 to $31.19. For production and nonsupervisory employees specifically, average weekly earnings grew from $1,117.75 in February to $1,123.79, with hourly earnings up by 72 cents to $29.73 compared to the previous year.
Across all sectors, the nation added 228,000 jobs, greatly exceeding the expected addition of just 130,000 jobs, according to data from financial analytics firm FactSet. However, the robust job growth may be short-lived as Trump’s tariffs, which are largely set to take effect early this month, are anticipated to slow economic momentum.
The unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points to 4.2%. In the transportation sector, the unemployment rate fell by 0.8 percentage points compared to the previous year, reaching 4.6%, which is still higher than the pre-pandemic level of 2.8% recorded in December 2019, but significantly lower than the peak of 15.7% in May and July 2020.
