April trucking jobs report shows a big increase in hiring

Truck transportation jobs in April rose by an amount that has not been seen for a long time. The jobs total of 1,496,600 jobs was 4,300 more than in March. To find a one-month gain of more than 4,300 jobs in truck transportation, you need to go back to September 2023, when the BLS reported a jobs gain in that sector of 6,000 jobs.

But that number carried something of an asterisk: it came after a job reduction of 32,700 jobs a month earlier on the back of Yellow Corp. closing. So the big increase the next month could have been driven in part by some of those laid off Yellow truck transportation workers finding other employment. window. googletag = window.

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collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag. enableServices(); }); googletag. cmd. push(function() {googletag. display('div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0'); }); To find a one-month increase as large as the 4,300 increase from April without an extraneous one-time factor, you’d need to go back to October 2022, when the great post-pandemic freight market was slowing.

The truck transportation sector added 6,400 jobs that month, one month after losing 6,100 jobs. It’s been mostly down arrows recently April’s increase was even more notable because it is a much higher number in what has been a stretch of mostly lower figures.

In the 12 months, starting with the May 2025 report, the number of truck transportation jobs declined from the prior month nine times. And the two increases during that period were small, 300 and 200 jobs in October and March, respectively. The increase in April jobs came after an upward revision of February and March jobs as well.

But that wasn’t enough to make up for the fact that despite the big April increase and those revisions, April jobs this year were still 2,100 jobs less than last year.

Stronger freight market driving numbers David Spencer, the vice president of market intelligence at Arrive Logistics, pointed to the signs of trucking market strength as driving the higher number. window. googletag = window. googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag. cmd. push(function() {googletag.

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push(function() {googletag. display('div-gpt-ad-1665767553440-0'); }); “This increase in hiring reflects growing confidence across the industry, supported by nearly six months of steady rate improvement and gradually tightening capacity conditions,” Spencer said in an email to FreightWaves.

Carriers that strategically add capacity now will be well-positioned to capitalize on what could become the strongest rate environment the industry has seen since the pandemic-era surge.”

He also said shippers that are going to “reevaluate contract allocations” and who will also “scale efficiently, will have a meaningful opportunity to strengthen customer relationships and capture additional market share.

Steady figures in warehouses Warehouse jobs, which for several years have been subject to large up and down movements, have stabilized over the last three months. window. googletag = window. googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag. cmd. push(function() {googletag.

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push(function() {googletag. display('div-gpt-ad-1709668086344-0'); }); April warehouse jobs were up 500 jobs from March at 1,830,700 jobs. But the latest March figure comes after a downward revision, as well as a February reduction.

The end result is that April jobs were 800 jobs less than February, and remain well below last April’s figure of 1,881,200 jobs. The truck transportation jobs increase came against a background of a strong jobs report in general. Aaron Terrazas, an independent economist, noted that the jobs report suggested so far there is no impact from higher oil prices.

“There was effectively no signal in April of any spillover from surging energy prices into the job market — the only transportation sectors that lost jobs were the least oil sensitive industries: Rail, water and pipeline transportation, public transit, and sightseeing transportation,” Terrazas said in an email to FreightWaves.

“Trucking and parcel delivery firms added payroll jobs at a