Employment in rail transportation heads downhill between November 2018 and December 2020

This article examines recent employment declines in rail transportation, a small but important component of the transportation and warehousing industry. Although employment in rail transportation remained relatively stable for most of the past 25 years, it declined by 40,000 jobs from November 2018 to December 2020. This article provides an analysis of the recent employment declines in the rail transportation industry. After remaining stable for over two decades, employment in the rail transportation industry began to decrease in November 2018, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Employment Statistics (CES) survey.1 By December 2020, the industry had lost 40,000 jobs.