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Keeping America Moving: Characteristics of the Transportation and Warehousing Industry

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Truck driving on road next to port
May 2024
Keeping America Moving: Characteristics of the Transportation and Warehousing Industry

David Li

National Transportation Week, created in 1962 and celebrated from May 12–18 this year, recognizes those who build and operate our Nation’s transportation systems. Observance of the week sprung from National Defense Transportation Day which dates to 1957, a year after President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act leading to the creation of the interstate highway system.

Modern transportation makes it possible to relay goods and services throughout the nation and plays a pivotal role in keeping the American economy running smoothly. This Spotlight on Statistics focuses on employment and compensation for private industry transportation and warehousing workers who keep goods and individuals moving.

Strong employment recovery following COVID-19 pandemic

Over the past 20 years, employment in the transportation and warehousing industry grew 57.3 percent from 4.2 million to 6.6 million workers. However, the industry had periods of contractions following economic recessions and downturns. From 2001 to 2003, employment in the industry decreased 4.3 percent from 4.4 million to 4.2 million workers. Transportation and warehousing employment also fell slightly from 4.5 million workers in 2008 to 4.3 million in 2009, following the 2007–09 recession.

Transportation and warehousing also followed the overall private industry trend during the COVID-19 pandemic as employment in the industry decreased slightly from 5.7 million workers in 2019 to 5.6 million workers in 2020. In 2021, the industry experienced a strong recovery as employment rose from 6.1 million workers to 6.6 million, a 9.0-percent increase from the previous year compared with a 3.4-percent increase among all private workers.

Union representation trending upward in the 2020s

About 1.1 million private industry transportation and warehousing workers were represented by unions in 2023, an increase from 1 million in 2022. The share of workers in this industry represented by a union was about 17 percent in 2023, significantly higher than the 6.9 percent of all private industry workers represented by unions.

Transportation and warehousing worker union representation in 2023 was at the highest level since 2001, when 1.1 million of 4.2 million transportation workers were represented by unions.

Fifty-five transportation and warehousing related major work stoppages since 1993

Among transportation and warehousing related work stoppages, the largest by number of workers involved the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the United Parcel Service. The work stoppage began on August 4, 1997, involved 180,000 workers, and lasted 14 workdays.

More recent strike activity has occurred in this industry, but the size of the striking workforce was not as large as those depicted in the chart. The last major transportation and warehousing related work stoppage recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics involved the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and DHL Express, occurring in December 2023 and involving 1,100 workers. Prior to that, the next most recent took place in 2016 and involved the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and the Transport Workers Union. It idled 5,200 workers in November 2016.

Benefits account for a higher proportion of compensation costs

Employer compensation costs for private industry transportation and warehousing workers averaged $47.45 in December 2023, with wages and salaries accounting for 67.5 percent of compensation and benefits making up the remaining 32.5 percent. Compensation costs for all private industry workers averaged $43.11, of which 70.4 percent were wages and 29.6 percent benefits.

Significant increase in employer costs for wages and salaries in December 2023

Employer costs for wages and salaries increased 4.3 percent for all private industry workers for the 12 months ended in December 2023. Wage and salary costs for transportation and warehousing workers rose 7.1 percent over the period, the largest 12-month increase for the industry since the series began in 2001.

This marks the first time since March 2021 that costs for wages and salaries rose faster over the year for transportation and warehousing workers than for private industry workers overall.

Insurance accounted for 9.2 percent of total compensation costs

Benefits cost employers $15.43 for private industry transportation and warehousing workers, with insurance benefits accounting for 9.2 percent of total compensation and legally required benefits accounting for 7.9 percent. Paid leave accounted for 6.9 percent of total compensation for workers in this industry.

Eighty-six percent of workers had access to paid sick leave in 2023

Paid sick leave was available to 86 percent of private industry transportation and warehousing workers in 2023, and 9 percent had access to paid family leave. Ninety-three percent of workers in the industry had access to paid holidays and 90 percent had access to paid vacation.

Among all private industry workers, 78 percent had access to paid sick leave and paid family leave was available to 27 percent. Eighty percent had access to paid holiday leave and 79 percent to paid vacation.

Defined benefit retirement plan access and participation rates higher than average

In 2023, 83 percent of private transportation and warehousing workers had access to a retirement plan. Forty percent of workers in the industry had access to defined benefit and 64 percent had access to defined contribution plans. Overall in private industry, 70 percent of workers had access to retirement plans, 15 percent to defined benefit plans and 67 percent to defined contribution plans.

Defined benefit access and participation rates for transportation and warehousing workers were more than twice as high as the overall rates for private industry workers.

Employee assistance program availability higher than average

Among private transportation and warehousing workers, 76 percent had access to employee assistance programs, while 54 percent of all private industry workers had access to these programs. Financial planning was less accessible to transportation and warehousing workers compared with all private workers.

For more information

David Li is an economist in the Office of Compensation and Working Conditions, Bureau of Labor Statistics. For questions about this Spotlight, please email li.david@bls.gov.

This Spotlight on Statistics looks at data on national employment, union membership, work stoppages activity, and compensation data from the Employment Cost Index, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, Employee Benefits, Work Stoppages program, Current Employment Statistics, and Current Population Survey.

In the employment cost and benefits data, workers are classified as transportation and warehousing workers if they fall under NAICS codes beginning in 48-49. More information can be found in the Classification systems used by the National Compensation Survey.

The Employment Cost Index measures the change in the hourly labor cost to employers over time. The Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) measures the average cost per employee hour worked for total compensation, and costs as a percentage of total compensation. Employee Benefits in the United States provides comprehensive data on the incidence (the percentage of workers with access to and participation in employer provided benefit plans) as well as plan provisions.

The Work Stoppages program provides monthly and annual data of major work stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers lasting one full shift or longer.

The Current Employment Statistics (CES) program produces detailed industry estimates of nonfarm employment, hours, and earnings of workers on payrolls. The Current Population Survey (CPS) is a monthly survey of household conducted by the Bureau of Census for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It provides a comprehensive body of data on the labor force, employment, unemployment, persons not in the labor force, hours of work, earnings, and other demographic and labor force characteristics.

This Spotlight highlighted multiple data products. For more information on the concepts in this Spotlight please see the following.

National Compensation Survey Handbook of Methods

Current Employment Statistics Handbook of Methods

Current Population Survey Handbook of Methods

Glossary of Employee Benefit Terms