TED: The Economics Daily

National Transportation Week, observed May 12–18 this year, recognizes those who build and operate our transportation systems. Nationwide in 2023, employment in transportation and warehousing averaged 6.6 million. Employment in 2023 was up from 3.5 million in 1990, an 89-percent increase over this 33-year period.

The Producer Price Index for final demand moved up 2.2 percent from April 2023 to April 2024, the largest increase since rising 2.3 percent for the 12 months ended April 2023.

Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 4.2 percent for the 12-month period ending March 2024, compared with an increase of 4.8 percent for the year ending March 2023. Civilian workers include all private industry workers plus all state and local government workers. Total compensation costs are the sum of wages and salaries plus benefits costs.

In 2022, there were 116 police officer fatalities. Homicides accounted for 50 (43.1 percent) of the fatalities to officers. There were 123 government police officer fatalities in 2021 (data are not available for the combination of private and government fatalities in 2021), and 52.0 percent of the fatalities were from homicides (64).