The trucking industry added 2,300 jobs in November as the unemployment rate held at 5%, a seven-year low, the Labor Department reported Dec. 4.
The transportation and warehousing sector, which includes trucking, added 6,400 positions.
The 211,000 overall increase in employment was the largest gain this year and followed a 298,000 job gain the prior month that was larger than initially reported. The unemployment rate is at the lowest level since April 2008, Bloomberg News reported.
The rise in trucking jobs follows a 900 rise in October that was revised from 400. Total transportation services and warehousing jobs rose by 5,700 last month.
The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 200,000 increase in overall employment.
“It was a broad-based gain across all sectors, and that’s absolutely essential,” John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina, told Bloomberg.
Employment in November was spurred by the biggest increase in construction hiring since January 2014. Retailers, health-care providers, and leisure and hospitality companies added jobs at a healthy, but slower pace than in October, Bloomberg reported.
Construction companies took on 46,000 workers, led by residential specialty contractors and boosted by warmer weather across much of the United States. Payrolls at retailers rose by almost 31,000 in November, a step down from the month before.
