Econintersect: The American Trucking Associations’ (ATA) trucking index grew 0.4% in September partially offsetting last month’s revised decline of 0.9% month-over-month. Compared with September 2011, seasonally adjusted tonnage was up 3.6%. Please note that the ATA does not release an unadjusted data series where Econintersect can make an independent evaluation.
It should be noted that jobs grew in September in the trucking industry. From the press release:
“The year-over-year deceleration in tonnage continued during September, although I was encouraged that the seasonally adjusted index edged higher from August,” ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said. Costello noted again this month that the acceleration in housing starts, which is helping truck tonnage, is being countered by a flattening in manufacturing output and elevated inventories throughout the supply chain.”
“Expect year-over-year comparisons to continue shrinking through the rest of the year as tonnage grew nicely during the last three months of 2011,” he said. As a result, tonnage is expected to increase less than 3.5% in 2012.”
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Econintersect tries to validate data across data sources. It appears this month that jobs growth says the trucking industry grew 0.1% month-over-month (red line) and up 47,000 jobs from a year ago (blue line)
source: ATA
