Office of Operations Freight Management and Operations

Table 4-3. Employment in For-Hire Transportation Primarily Serving Freight1 (Thousands)

Employment in many transportation industries has remained steady or has grown over the past two decades, but it has plummeted in rail transportation as productivity has soared. Between 1980 and 2004, rail employment declined nearly 60 percent. Consequently, in 2004 rail transportation employed only 5 percent of those working in the transportation and warehousing industry compared with 18 percent in 1980. By comparison, employment in trucking in 2004 accounted for about one-third of employment in transportation and warehousing.

Table in Excel format | Historical data

empty Cell 1980 1990 2000 2004
Total U.S. labor force290,528109,487131,785131,480
Transportation and warehousing2,9613,4764,4104,250
Rail transportation518272232224
Water transportationNA575657
Truck transportationNA1,1221,4061,351
Pipeline transportationNA604639
Support activities for transportationNA364537536
Postal service673825880784
Couriers and messengersNA375605561
Warehousing and storageNA407514556

Key: NA = not available.

1Annual averages.
2Excludes farm employment.

Note: These data include workers employed in transportation industries but not necessarily in a transportation occupation, such as a lawyer working for a trucking company. Moreover, these data exclude workers in transportation occupations employed by non-transportation industries, such as a truck driver employed by a retail company.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics survey, available at www.bls.gov as of July 1, 2005.

You will need the Microsoft Excel Viewer to view the Excel files on this page.

Office of Operations