Trade, Transportation, and Utilities

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:

• Wholesale Trade: NAICS 42
• Retail Trade: NAICS 44-45
• Transportation and Warehousing: NAICS 48-49
• Utilities: NAICS 22

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	Back data	Dec. 2020	Jan. 2021	Feb. 2021	Mar. 2021
Employment (in thousands)
Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)		26,984	27,023	(p)27,093	(p)27,187
Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees (seasonally adjusted)		22,855	22,854	(p)22,905	(p)22,978
Job openings, hires, and separations (in thousands)
Job openings		1,086	1,184	(p)1,278
Hires		1,014	1,052	(p)881
Separations		1,172	1,566	(p)942
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	Back data	Dec. 2020	Jan. 2021	Feb. 2021	Mar. 2021
Average hourly earnings		$25.67	$25.70	(p)$25.67	(p)$25.78
Average weekly hours		34.1	34.4	(p)34.2	(p)34.4
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees

Data series	Back data	Dec. 2020	Jan. 2021	Feb. 2021	Mar. 2021
Average hourly earnings		$21.74	$21.71	(p)$21.71	(p)$21.78
Average weekly hours		34.1	34.5	(p)34.3	(p)34.5
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
	Back data	2020	Back data	2020
Private industry
Retirement benefit plans		76		51
Defined benefit plans		16		11
Defined contribution plans		69		44

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series	After 1 year of service		After 20 years of service
	Back data	2020	Back data	2020
Mean number of vacation days for private industry workers without consolidated leave plans		7		18

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series	Back data	2020
Percent of private industry workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits
Health care		69
Paid vacation		81
Paid sick leave		74

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs

Data series	Back data	1st quarter 2020	2nd quarter 2020	3rd quarter 2020	4th quarter 2020
Private industry
12-month percent change
Total compensation		2.7%	2.9%	2.6%	3.1%
Wages and salaries		3.3%	3.5%	2.9%	3.4%
3-month percent change
Total compensation		1.1%	0.8%	0.3%	0.9%
Wages and salaries		1.2%	0.8%	0.3%	1.0%

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Data series	Private industry
	Compensation component ($ per hour worked)		Percent of total compensation
	Back data	4th quarter 2020	Back data	4th quarter 2020
Total compensation		30.66		100.0
Wages and salaries		21.72		70.8
Total benefits		8.94		29.2
Insurance		2.38		7.8
Retirement		1.14		3.7
Paid leave		2.02		6.6

(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	2016	2017	2018	2019
Fatalities
Number of fatalities	1,364	1,426	1,431	1,456
Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

Data series	2019
Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers
Total recordable cases	3.4
Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer	2.2
Cases involving days away from work	1.2
Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction	1.0
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	Back data	4th quarter 2019	1st quarter 2020	2nd quarter 2020	3rd quarter 2020
Number of establishments
Private industry		1,949,344	(p)1,943,499	(p)1,944,036	(p)1,956,615
Local government		11,995	(p)12,007	(p)12,000	(p)11,991
State government		977	(p)979	(p)977	(p)975
Federal government		30,176	(p)30,243	(p)30,272	(p)30,311
Footnotes (p) Preliminary

(Source: Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

 

Data extracted on: April 16, 2021