Transportation, warehousing, and utilities

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), the Transportation, warehousing, and utilities sector reported 298K job openings nationally during May 2026, paired with 308K hires and 335K total separations in the same month. The openings rate stood at 4.0% and the hires rate at 4.3%, meaning the sector filled roughly 103% of posted positions during the reference month. A fill ratio well below 100% indicates openings outpacing hires, a durable signal of structural labor demand rather than temporary seasonal tightness. These figures measure the national aggregate for the sector, computed by BLS from the JOLTS establishment survey and benchmarked to Current Employment Statistics estimates; they do not include self-employed workers or agricultural employment.

Turnover dynamics tell the deeper story: Transportation, warehousing, and utilities recorded 188K voluntary quits (2.6% quits rate) and 133K layoffs and discharges in May 2026, for a combined separations rate of 4.7%. The quits rate, the single most-watched JOLTS metric, captures worker confidence: at current levels, it sits well above the decade-long baseline of roughly 2.0%, suggesting workers in this sector retain leverage and see outside opportunities. With quits (188K) exceeding layoffs (133K), employee-initiated separations dominate, the pattern associated with a worker-friendly labor market.

Geographic concentration matters for anyone interpreting these aggregates: BLS does not publish a state-by-industry JOLTS breakdown, so state-level concentration for this sector cannot be shown here. Versus the same month a year earlier, Transportation, warehousing, and utilities openings contracted 4.5% - broadly consistent with steady labor market conditions. Every number on this page comes directly from the BLS JOLTS public dataset for May 2026; no extrapolations are applied.