Blog

Over the last five months, the transportation industry has seen a steady and steep decline in jobs. With countless company issues this year, from Yellow Corp ending operations and declaring bankruptcy to the strikes from the United Auto Workers against the Detroit Big Three, there has been little opportunity for people to begin work. Furthermore, it has not come across as a very inviting industry. Yellow Corp very unexpectedly put thousands of people out of a job when they out of nowhere closed down. The strikes revealed poor wages and working conditions for several auto manufacturers. Overall, the events in 2023 pertaining to the auto industry made potential employees view the companies as unappealing and uninviting.

The number of jobs in the industry recorded in October is over 30,000 less than the number of jobs recorded in May.

This large jump was steady as it occurred. There was a big jump down in August, when Yellow officially ended operations. After that, there surprising was a large increase in September in which about half of those lost in August came back. Then from there, average declines of 1,000-5,000 occurred per month. This shows that most of the loss was from Yellow’s bankruptcy, but nonetheless other companies definitely felt the loss.

Seasonally, the recorded job count does change, as the typical number of employees does change seasonally. The fall/winter months do tend to be lower times for the auto industry, So analysts had to convert the numbers to seasonally adjust. After they seasonally adjusted the count, analysts still advised that all numbers are important for their reports, as they all show different details of the industry. The non-seasonally adjusted numbers allows analysts to infer that those seasonal carriers who assist with increased retail cargo, food, and Christmas tree shipping may have decided to skip this year.

Overall, many are expressing concerns overall about the inconsistency in stability that the auto industry has had recently.

Experts expect this trend to continue into 2024. They confidently expressed that we will eventually regulate and find a stable balance. Part of why the decrease was so sharp is because many got into the carrier business during the pandemic because it was one of the few steady and consistent jobs that also made good money. Now as nearly everything is back to pre-pandemic standards, many of the people who made that transition are going back to their old industries.