The star of the most recent monthly US jobs report was the transportation and warehousing sector. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimates that the sector created more than 20,000 jobs from July to August 2018. At an annualized rate of 5% growth, transportation and warehousing was the fastest growing part of the US jobs market.
It wasn’t just last month. In 2018, only the construction sector has expanded faster.
The transportation and warehousing sector is benefitting from a boom in e-commerce. Online sales are now about 10% of all US retail, with Amazon accounting for about half of the market. Increased shipping demand has led to a particularly sharp rise in the number of truckers (paywall). BLS estimates that about 23,000 new trucker jobs have been created in 2018, almost 6,000 of which appeared last month.