The pullback came as the broader U.S. economy added 311,000 jobs, driven by growth in service sectors such as restaurants, hospitals and nursing homes.

February is typically a soft month for logistics hiring as companies pull back after the peak shipping season at the end of the year, but these latest figures reflect a broader cooling of demand, said Aaron Terrazas, chief economist at company-ratings website Glassdoor Inc.

Amid that slowdown in freight demand, many logistics companies have been pulling back on hiring or cutting jobs in recent months as the supply-chain disruptions that led to tens of thousands of new jobs recede.

U.S. ports handled 1.73 million inbound containers in December measured in 20-foot equivalent units, or TEUs, down 16.2% from the previous month, according to a report released Tuesday by Descartes Datamyne, a trade intelligence database owned by supply-chain software company Descartes Systems Group Inc.

The Cass Freight Index, which measures trucking and rail shipments moving in the U.S., dropped 3.2% from December to January, the most recent data available.

Trucking employment fell by 8,500 jobs in February in the largest drop in employment since April 2020 when 84,500 jobs in the sector were cut. Still, Mr. Terrazas said that was less than anticipated.

“The reality is for as much as they’re down, I don’t think they’re down as much as you’d expect given the collapse in line-haul rates over the past few months,” Mr. Terrazas said.

Executives at some trucking companies have said they anticipate freight demand will be slow for the first half of the year and will then rebound as retailers begin placing more orders.

The most recent Logistics Managers’ Index measuring logistics activity in the U.S. showed transportation prices were contracting in February at the fastest rate in the index’s 6¹/₂-year history.

Source: www.wsj.com