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Trade, Transportation, and Utilities

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About the Trade, Transportation, and Utilities supersector
BLS Data

About the Trade, Transportation, and Utilities supersector

The trade, transportation, and utilities supersector is part of the service-providing industries supersector group.

The trade, transportation, and utilities supersector consists of these sectors:

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment in trade, transportation, and utilities. These data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, job openings and labor turnover, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment and Openings, Hires, and Separations


Data series	Aug. 2024	Sep. 2024	Oct. 2024	Nov. 2024
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)	29,039	29,059	(p)29,055	(p)29,032
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees (seasonally adjusted)	24,575	24,609	(p)24,603	(p)24,594
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)
Job openings	1,193	1,030	(p)995
Hires	1,031	1,050	(p)1,340
Separations	1,117	960	(p)1,022
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey)

Projections

For projected (future) employment estimates in trade, transportation, and utilities, see the Employment and projected employment by major industry sector table.

(Source: Office of Occupational Statistics and Employment Projections)

Earnings and Hours

This section presents data on employee earnings and weekly hours. The latest industry averages of hourly earnings and weekly hours are shown. This section also contains information on the average cost of benefits paid by employers, as well as recent rates of change in wages and total compensation.

Earnings and Hours of All Employees


Data series	Aug. 2024	Sep. 2024	Oct. 2024	Nov. 2024
Average hourly earnings	$30.09	$30.15	(p)$30.28	(p)$30.45
Average weekly hours	33.9	33.9	(p)33.8	(p)33.7
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees


Data series	Aug. 2024	Sep. 2024	Oct. 2024	Nov. 2024
Average hourly earnings	$26.08	$26.08	(p)$26.16	(p)$26.31
Average weekly hours	34.0	34.0	(p)34.1	(p)33.9
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Employee Benefits

This section presents data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer-provided benefit plans) and provisions of selected employee benefits from the National Compensation Survey. More Benefits estimates are also accessible from the Benefits database, the archived NCS publications page, and the complete Employee Benefits Excel dataset (XLSX).


Data series	Access		Participation
Data series	Back data	2024	Back data	2024
Private industry
Retirement benefit plans		81		50
Defined benefit plans		19		13
Defined contribution plans		74		42

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)


Data series	After 1 year of service		After 20 years of service
Data series	Back data	2024	Back data	2024
Mean number of vacation days for private industry workers without consolidated leave plans		8		18

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)


Data series	Back data	2024
Percent of private industry workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits
Health care		71
Paid vacation		81
Paid sick leave		78

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs


Data series	4th quarter 2023	1st quarter 2024	2nd quarter 2024	3rd quarter 2024
Private industry
12-month percent change
Total compensation	4.6%	4.4%	4.3%	4.1%
Wages and salaries	4.8%	4.8%	4.4%	4.2%
3-month percent change
Total compensation	1.1%	1.1%	1.2%	0.5%
Wages and salaries	1.3%	1.2%	1.0%	0.6%

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)


Data series	Private industry
	Compensation component ($ per hour worked)		Percent of total compensation
	Back data	2nd quarter 2024	Back data	2nd quarter 2024
Total compensation		37.14		100.0
Wages and salaries		26.60		71.6
Total benefits		10.55		28.4
Insurance		2.71		7.3
Retirement		1.40		3.8
Paid leave		2.43		6.5

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Work-related Fatalities, Injuries, and Illnesses

This section presents data for the industry on the number of workplace fatalities and the rates of workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in trade, transportation, and utilities. An injury or illness is considered to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing condition.


Data series	2019	2020	2021	2022
Fatalities
Number of fatalities	1,456	1,304	1,511	1,618
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.


Data series	2023
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers
Total recordable cases	3.2
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer	2.2
Cases involving days away from work	1.3
Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction	0.9
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments in trade, transportation, and utilities.

Establishments


Data series	3rd quarter 2023	4th quarter 2023	1st quarter 2024	2nd quarter 2024
Number of establishments
Private industry	2,062,240	2,069,128	(p)2,072,234	(p)2,081,133
Local government	12,045	12,047	(p)12,042	(p)12,072
State government	964	967	(p)961	(p)962
Federal government	30,749	30,791	(p)30,862	(p)30,819
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

Data extracted on: December 13, 2024