| Friday, January 9, 2026
The unemployment rate in the U.S. transportation sector was 3.6% (not seasonally adjusted) in December 2025 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). These data have been updated on the Bureau of Transportation Statistics' (BTS) Unemployment in Transportation dashboard. In December 2025, the transportation sector unemployment rate fell 0.7 percentage points from 4.3% in December 2024. Unemployment in the transportation sector reached its highest level during the COVID-19 pandemic (15.7%) in May 2020 and July 2020.
Unemployment in the transportation sector was lower than overall unemployment. BLS reports that the U.S. unemployment rate, not seasonally adjusted, in December 2025 was 4.1% or 0.5 percentage points above the transportation sector rate. Seasonally adjusted, the U.S. unemployment rate in December 2025 was 4.4%. NOTE: BLS did not release household survey estimates for October 2025. Seasonally adjusted, employment in the transportation and warehousing sector fell to 6,664,700 in December 2025 — down 0.1% from the previous month and down 0.9% from December 2024. By mode (seasonally adjusted): - Air transportation rose to 580,900 in December 2025 — up 0.2% from the previous month and up 2.0% from December 2024.
- Truck transportation remained virtually unchanged in December 2025 at 1,513,300 from the previous month but down 0.2% from December 2024.
- Transit and ground passenger transportation rose to 499,900 in December 2025 — up 0.7% from the previous month and up 3.1% from December 2024.
- Rail transportation rose to 151,000 in December 2025 — up 0.5% from the previous month but down 2.5% from December 2024.
- Water transportation rose to 73,000 in December 2025 — up 1.2% from the previous month and up 4.4% from December 2024.
- Pipeline transportation rose to 61,600 in December 2025 — up 0.5% from the previous month and up 9.2% from December 2024.
- Warehousing and storage fell to 1,791,500 in December 2025 — down 0.4% from the previous month and down 2.8% from December 2024.
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NOTES: December 2019 and December 2025 employment (seasonally adjusted) not shown for water (67,300 and 73,000, respectively) or pipeline (52,000 and 61,600, respectively) transportation. All-time highs (seasonally adjusted) with records beginning in 1990: air March 2001 (633,600); pipeline December 2025 (61,600); rail January 1990 (278,100); transit June 2019 (503,900); truck July 2022 (1,587,900); warehousing and storage March 2022 (1,943,100); and water December 2025 (73,000) Charts updated this month by section include: Unemployment in the Transportation and Warehousing Sector and in Transportation and Material Moving Occupations Monthly Employment in the Transportation and Warehousing Sector, Establishment Data Visit Transportation Economic Trends for more topics. The unemployment rate is the total number of unemployed persons, expressed as a percentage of the civilian labor force. The civilian labor force includes all persons aged 16 and older who are employed and unemployed; meaning they are either currently working or actively looking for work. Unemployed persons include those who actively sought a job within the last four weeks. People waiting to start a new job who have not actively sought a job in the last four weeks are not counted as employed or unemployed; they are considered to be out of the labor force. An unemployed person's industry is the industry for the last job they held in the workforce, which may or may not reflect their current job search field or industry. To receive updates from BTS directly to your email, please consider subscribing to our GovDelivery service. |
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