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Transportation and Warehousing: NAICS 48-49

About the Transportation and Warehousing sector

The transportation and warehousing sector is part of the trade, transportation, and utilities supersector.

The Transportation and Warehousing sector includes industries providing transportation of passengers and cargo, warehousing and storage for goods, scenic and sightseeing transportation, and support activities related to modes of transportation. Establishments in these industries use transportation equipment or transportation related facilities as a productive asset. The type of equipment depends on the mode of transportation. The modes of transportation are air, rail, water, road, and pipeline.

North American Industry Classification System

The transportation and warehousing sector consists of these subsectors:

Workforce Statistics

This section provides information relating to employment and unemployment in transportation and warehousing. While most data are obtained from employer or establishment surveys, information on industry unemployment comes from a national survey of households. The following tables present an overview of the industry including the number of jobs, the unemployment rate of those previously employed in the industry, union membership and representation, gross job gains and losses, data for occupations common to the industry, and projections of occupational employment change.

Employment and Unemployment

Data series Back
data
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024
Feb.
2024

Employment (in thousands)

Employment, all employees (seasonally adjusted)

6,538.9 6,520.6 (p)6,491.7 (p)6,511.4

Employment, production and nonsupervisory employees (seasonally adjusted)

5,709.2 5,691.9 (p)5,670.4 (p)5,700.5

Unemployment

Unemployment rate

4.5% 4.3% 4.7% 5.9%

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics, Current Population Survey

Union Membership and Representation

Data series Back
data
2020 2021 2022 2023

Union membership and representation

Members of unions (percent of wage and salary workers)

17.0% 14.7% 14.5% 15.9%

Represented by unions (percent of wage and salary workers)

18.2% 16.1% 15.5% 17.0%

(Source: Current Population Survey)

Dynamic Changes in Employment

Data series Back
data
3rd quarter
2022
4th quarter
2022
1st quarter
2023
2nd quarter
2023

Dynamic changes in employment (in thousands)

Gross job gains

385 473 307 324

Gross job losses

328 332 440 377

(Source: Business Employment Dynamics)

Employment by Occupation

Data series Employment,
2022

Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers

83,490

Bus drivers, school

 

Railroad conductors and yardmasters

36,270

Sailors and marine oilers

21,630

Truck drivers, heavy and tractor-trailer

1,152,570

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

Projections

For projected (future) employment estimates, see the National Employment Matrix, which includes employment estimates by industry and occupation for transportation and warehousing.

(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, as well as weekly earnings by union membership status, are shown. In addition, recent hourly and annual earnings are shown for occupations commonly found in transportation and warehousing. 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
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024
Feb.
2024

Average hourly earnings

$30.01 $30.24 (p)$30.51 (p)$30.57

Average weekly hours

38.1 38.5 (p)38.1 (p)38.0

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings and Hours of Production and Nonsupervisory Employees

Data series Back
data
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024
Feb.
2024

Average hourly earnings

$28.51 $28.61 (p)$29.02 (p)$29.29

Average weekly hours

37.6 38.0 (p)37.5 (p)37.5

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Current Employment Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation

Data series Wages, 2022
Hourly Annual
Median Mean Median Mean

Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers

(1)-$ (1)-$ $221,160 $232,640

Bus drivers, school

       

Railroad conductors and yardmasters

$32.68 $33.30 $67,970 $69,260

Sailors and marine oilers

$22.87 $26.08 $47,570 $54,240

Truck drivers, heavy and tractor-trailer

$24.85 $26.24 $51,680 $54,580

Footnotes
(1) Wages for some occupations that do not generally work year-round, full time, are reported either as hourly wages or annual salaries depending on how they are typically paid.

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics)

Earnings by Occupation

Data series Wages, 2022
Hourly Annual
Median Mean Median Mean

Cashiers

$13.60 $13.83 $28,290 $28,760

Customer service representatives

$15.75 $16.52 $32,750 $34,370

First-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers

$21.54 $23.84 $44,790 $49,590

Retail salespersons

$14.67 $16.60 $30,510 $34,520

Stock clerks and order fillers

$15.13 $15.75 $31,460 $32,750

(Source: Occupational Employment and Wage 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
2023 Back
data
2023

Private industry

Retirement benefit plans

83 66

Defined benefit plans

40 35

Defined contribution plans

64 44

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series After 1 year of service After 20 years of service
Back
data
2023 Back
data
2023

Mean number of vacation days for private industry workers without consolidated leave plans

8 22

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Data series Back
data
2023

Percent of private industry workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits

Health care

89

Paid vacation

90

Paid sick leave

86

(Source: Employee Benefits in the United States)

Employer Compensation Costs

Data series Back
data
1st quarter
2023
2nd quarter
2023
3rd quarter
2023
4th quarter
2023

Private industry

12-month percent change

Total compensation

3.1% 3.9% 3.9% 6.3%

Wages and salaries

3.6% 4.2% 4.2% 7.1%

3-month percent change

Total compensation

0.9% 1.2% 0.9% 3.2%

Wages and salaries

0.9% 1.2% 1.0% 3.8%

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Data series Private industry
Compensation component
($ per hour worked)
Percent of total compensation
Back
data
4th quarter 2023 Back
data
4th quarter 2023

Total compensation

47.45 100.0

Wages and salaries

32.02 67.5

Total benefits

15.43 32.5

Insurance

4.36 9.2

Retirement

2.55 5.4

Paid leave

3.26 6.9

(Source: Compensation Cost Trends)

Union Membership and Representation

Data series Back
data
Median weekly earnings
2020 2021 2022 2023

Union membership and representation

Full-time workers

$893 $914 $943 $993

Members of unions

$1,138 $1,147 $1,203 $1,262

Represented by unions

$1,117 $1,120 $1,178 $1,231

Nonunion

$849 $883 $909 $966

(Source: Current Population Survey)

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 transportation and warehousing. 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

948 846 1,025 1,095

Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

Data series 2022

Rate of injury and illness cases per 100 full-time workers

Total recordable cases

4.8

Cases involving days away from work, job restriction, or transfer

3.8

Cases involving days away from work

2.2

Cases involving days of job transfer or restriction

1.6

Blank cells indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

(Source: Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities)

Prices

This section provides industry-specific pricing information. The producer price index measures the percentage change in prices that domestic producers receive for goods and services. The prices included in the producer price index are from the first commercial transaction.

Data series Back
data
Nov.
2023
Dec.
2023
Jan.
2024
Feb.
2024

Producer price index

(p)167.585 (p)167.060 (p)168.101 (p)169.229

Percent change from previous month

  (p)-0.3% (p)-0.3% (p)0.6% (p)0.7%

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Producer Price Indexes)

Workplace Trends

This section presents data on the number of establishments and the number of establishments experiencing job gains or job losses in transportation and warehousing.

Establishments

Data series Back
data
4th quarter
2022
1st quarter
2023
2nd quarter
2023
3rd quarter
2023

Number of establishments

Private industry

317,843 (p)320,273 (p)323,672 (p)326,975

Local government

2,932 (p)2,936 (p)2,940 (p)2,943

State government

479 (p)473 (p)472 (p)471

Federal government

29,381 (p)29,428 (p)29,548 (p)29,823

Establishments with changes in employment (in thousands)

With job gains (seasonally adjusted)

69 64 62  

With job losses (seasonally adjusted)

66 67 70  

Footnotes
(p) Preliminary

(Source: Business Employment Dynamics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages)

 

Data extracted on: March 15, 2024