Table 4-3. Employment in For-Hire Transportation Primarily Serving Freight¹ (Thousands)

Employment in many transportation industries has remained steady or has grown over the past two decades, but it has plummeted in rail transportation as productivity has soared. Between 1980 and 2004, rail employment declined nearly 60 percent. Consequently, in 2004 rail transportation employed only 5 percent of those working in the transportation and warehousing industry compared with 18 percent in 1980. By comparison, employment in trucking in 2004 accounted for about one-third of employment in transportation and warehousing.

Table in Excel format | Historical data

	1980	1990	2000	2004
Total U.S. labor force2	90,528	109,487	131,785	131,480
Transportation and warehousing	2,961	3,476	4,410	4,250
Rail transportation	518	272	232	224
Water transportation	NA	57	56	57
Truck transportation	NA	1,122	1,406	1,351
Pipeline transportation	NA	60	46	39
Support activities for transportation	NA	364	537	536
Postal service	673	825	880	784
Couriers and messengers	NA	375	605	561
Warehousing and storage	NA	407	514	556

Key: NA = not available.

¹Annual averages.
²Excludes farm employment.

Note: These data include workers employed in transportation industries but not necessarily in a transportation occupation, such as a lawyer working for a trucking company. Moreover, these data exclude workers in transportation occupations employed by non-transportation industries, such as a truck driver employed by a retail company.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics survey, available at www.bls.gov as of July 1, 2005.

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