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 2003, rail employment declined nearly 60 percent. Consequently, in 2003 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 2003, accounted for about one-third of employment in transportation and warehousing.

Table in Excel format

	1980	1990	2000	2003
Total U.S. labor force2	90,528	109,487	131,785	129,931
Transportation and warehousing	2,961	3,476	4,410	4,177
Rail transportation	518	272	232	215
Water transportation	NA	57	56	53
Truck transportation	NA	1,122	1,406	1,328
Pipeline transportation	NA	60	46	40
Support activities for transportation	NA	364	537	516
Postal service	673	825	880	809
Couriers and messengers	NA	375	605	567
Warehousing and storage	NA	407	514	522

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 15, 2004.