In this week’s episode of FTR’s Trucking Market Update podcast, we examine payroll employment for trucking and the broader economy. Plus, we recap the week in diesel prices and the spot market for truck freight.<br>The Trucking Market Update is hosted by FTR’s Vice President of Trucking, Avery Vise. As this information is presented, you are welcome to follow along and look at the graphs and indicators yourself by downloading the presentation.<br><br>Download the PDF: https://ftrintel.com/trucking-podcast<br>Support the show

Trucking Market Update - Week Beginning June 8, 2026

FTR | State of Freight

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** FTR | State of Freight

## Participants

- **Avery Weiss** (None)

## Transcript

Welcome to this week's episode of FTR's Weekly Trucking Update Podcast, hosted by Avery Weiss. Join Avery each week as he dissects everything from market trends to economic indicators to explore how these factors are shaping the trucking landscape. Download the graphics package at ftrintel.com trucking-podcast and feel free to use those slides as you defend your

transportation thought leadership within your own company. So buckle up as we embark on a journey through the dynamic and ever-changing world of trucking. And now, here's your host, Avery Weiss. Welcome to FTR's Weekly Trucking Market Update. I'm Avery Weiss, Vice President of Trucking. This is episode 368 for the week of June 8, 2026. Before we start, a reminder you can download a PDF

with graphics related to this discussion at ftrintel.com trucking-podcast. So it's a jobs report week and that means we typically start with a look at payroll employment in trucking. Updated figures show the recovery in for-hire trucking's payroll employment during April as slightly stronger than initial estimates, but preliminary figures for May show a drop in jobs that was almost as large

as the revised April increase. So truck transportation shed 4,400 jobs seasonally adjusted in May after adding an upwardly adjusted 4,900 jobs in April according to the latest estimates. The initial April day estimate had been 4,300 jobs. Either way you look at it, April's seasonally adjusted gain was the largest for a single month since September of 2023, which as I pointed out last month was the

month following YRC's collapse. April's increase was only the second of any size in the past 14 months. Although trucking employment is 500 jobs seasonally adjusted higher than it was in March, it otherwise is the lowest since September 2020 and is 3.4% below that in the pre-pandemic month of February 2020. More granular data available only through April shows that the truckload sector was responsible not only for a

large share of April's big increase in trucking employment, but also an even bigger increase in jobs during the month, which is a month during which BLS figures show a small decrease in total trucking payroll employment. The latest figures indicate that general freight truckload added 2,600 jobs in March. When total trucking jobs fell by 800, the estimated increase was 1,900 jobs. The other major contributor to

April's strong increase was local general freight trucking, which added 2,800 jobs. That sector generally has tracked, at least since the pandemic, with parcel and local delivery employment. As you might recall, that also experienced a big increase during April. Now, I'm not going to get into wage data this month because frankly there hasn't been all that much change, but I did include in the slide deck accompanying the podcast some charts on average weekly earnings for trucking employment e...

Trucking Market Update - Week Beginning June 8, 2026

Transcript

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Trucking Market Update - Week Beginning June 8, 2026

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.