The Bureau of Transportation Statistics calculates this index based on the American Trucking Association’s monthly Truck Tonnage Index.

Employed persons include people aged 16 years and older in the civilian noninstitutional population who did any work at all as paid employees; worked in their own business, profession, or on their own farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers in an enterprise operated by a member of the family; and all those who were not working but who had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics produces industry estimates of nonfarm payroll employment as part of the Current Population Survey.

Economic concepts related to the contribution of transportation to the economy

Release Note

BTS is withholding the scheduled release of the passenger and combined indexes for January. The passenger index is a statistical estimate of airline passenger travel and other components based on historical trends up to December 2019. As a result, the estimates have yet to fully account for the impact of the coronavirus. Air freight is also a statistical estimate. Since air freight makes up a smaller part of the freight index, the freight TSI is being released as scheduled.

Description

Statisticians use the process of seasonal-adjustment to uncover trends in data. Monthly data, for instance, are influenced by the number of days and the number of weekends in a month as well as by the timing of holidays and seasonal activity. These influences make it difficult to see underlying changes in the data. Statisticians use seasonal adjustment to control for these influences.

Controlling of seasonal influences allows measurement of real monthly changes; short and long term patterns of growth or decline; and turning points. Data for one month can be compared to data for any other month in the series and the data series can be ranked to find high and low points. Any observed differences are “real” differences; that is, they are differences brought about by changes in the data and not brought about by a change in the number of days or weekends in the month, the occurrence or non-occurrence of a holiday, or seasonal activity.

Interactive visualizations showing the long-term trends in docked bikeshare trips by system and type of trip, membership level, and time of day since 2019. Updated monthly.

PPFSP 23

Employment in transportation by industry and occupation

A landing page for the National Census of Ferry Operators, a biennial survey of passenger ferry operations in the United States

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics releases non-seasonally adjusted air traffic data based on monthly reports from commercial U.S. air carriers.

The BTS Pocket Guide to Transportation is a popular, quick reference guide that provides transportation statistics at your fingertips. It provides key information and highlights major trends on the U.S. transportation system. The Pocket Guide is available in both web and print editions. It includes dynamic data updates to highlight the latest statistics, enhanced navigation, and sharable data to social media.