(The following appeared on the Progressive Railroading website on September 18, 2009.)
After increasing in size a bit from June to July, the U.S. Class I workforce shrunk a tad from July to August. As of mid-August, the workforce stood at 150,064, down 0.2 percent from July’s level, according to Surface Transportation Board (STB) data. The workforce also declined 8.7 percent from August 2008’s count.
The transportation (train and engine) staff actually increased 0.6 percent from mid-July’s level to 57,167, but the workforce segment remained 15.9 percent smaller than it was in August 2008. Transportation (other than T&E) ranks reached 6,685, rising 2.1 percent from July’s level and 1.3 percent from August 2008’s count.
Executives, officials and staff assistants numbered 9,283, down 1 percent month over month and 8.1 percent year over year. Professional and administrative staff fell 2.5 percent from July’s level to 13,491 and remained down 0.7 percent from the year-ago count.