The Transportation and Warehousing Sector in New York City

June 2022

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From moving people into and around New York City to delivering food and storing goods, the transportation and warehousing sector is an important component of the City’s economy. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, growing visitor numbers and increased demand for the transportation of goods with the rise of e-commerce supported employment growth. During the pandemic, visitor numbers fell dramatically, stunting the demand for passenger transportation. At the same time, demand for goods skyrocketed due to shifts in consumer and business buying behaviors amid the implementation of social distancing measures. Total goods transported throughout the City are expected to reach 313 million tons valued at nearly $639 billion in 2022.¹

While certain subsectors were affected more negatively than others, the overall transportation and warehousing sector has regained 82 percent of its pandemic job losses compared to 73 percent for the total private sector. The sector’s strength represents a brighter side for the larger trade, transportation and utilities supersector, whose employment recovery has been stalled by the hard-hit retail trade sector. However, the recovery of pandemic job losses in the City’s transportation and warehousing sector lags behind the nation’s, which recovered before the end of 2020.

The City expects the transportation and warehousing sector to regain the remainder of its pandemic job losses by 2022, barring the emergence of new economic disruptions that could further impact the global supply chain system and the sector. Continued growth in the sector would suggest a broad-based and vigorous economic recovery in New York City.

National and Rest of State Employment

In the United States, the transportation and warehousing sector shed 555,000 jobs in the months of March and April 2020 (not seasonally adjusted). Sector employment in the nation declined from a high of 6 million jobs in December 2019 to fewer than 5.2 million by the end of April 2020. However, nationally, the sector fully recovered its COVID-19 pandemic job losses by October 2020, leading to an annual average of 5.6 million jobs in 2020, just shy of the peak in 2019 (see Figure 1).²

FIGURE 1 – Transportation and Warehousing Employment in the Nation, 2000 to 2022

The recovery of job losses in the sector during the pandemic was very different than in the Great Recession, when the sector lost fewer jobs but took over four years to regain the jobs lost. In the nation, the sector continued to grow in 2021 and is on pace to add over 450,000 jobs on an annual average basis in 2022, barring new economic disruptions. This gain would be slightly fewer than in 2021.

New York State has not yet seen a full recovery, but the continuing lag is related to the outsized role of New York City in the State economy. In the rest of the State, the transportation and warehousing sector lost over 35,000 jobs in the months of March and April 2020, declining from nearly 140,000 jobs prior to the onset of the pandemic to fewer than 105,000 jobs. In comparison, during the Great Recession, on average, the sector lost 7,200 jobs in 2009.

While the sector in the rest of the State did begin to regain jobs in May 2020, the annual average was 13,600 jobs fewer in 2020 than in 2019, the largest decline in the last 20 years (see Figure 2). The sector regained its pandemic job losses by September 2021 and is on pace to add over 9,300 jobs on an annual average basis in 2022.

FIGURE 2 – Transportation and Warehousing Employment in Rest of New York State, 2000 to 2022

The trend in the City was very different, as the transportation and warehousing sector has not fully recovered its pandemic job losses even as of April 2022. The City’s experience during the pandemic suggests fundamental differences in the City’s transportation and warehousing sector even prior to the pandemic. Those differences, discussed below, have important implications for the return of employment and the overall structure of the sector as the pandemic recedes.

New York City Employment

Not only does sector employment in New York City stand out within the State but also among other large job markets. At the metropolitan area level, where data for utilities cannot be separated from data for transportation and warehousing for many areas, the New York metropolitan area ranks first among the top 10 areas in the nation for sector jobs (see Figure 3). Its sector makes up a smaller share of private sector employment than in other metropolitan areas.

FIGURE 3 – Transportation, Warehousing and Utilities Sector in Top 10 Metropolitan Areas by Number of Jobs, April 2022

The City’s transportation, warehousing and utilities sector comprises over 35 percent of sector employment in the New York metropolitan area. Within the sector, the pandemic barely affected the utilities component. However, the pandemic did have a delayed and prolonged negative impact on the transportation and warehousing sector.

Job losses in the sector began in April 2020 (rather than March 2020) and persisted through July 2020. In total, the City lost nearly 40,000 jobs over those months, leading to an annual average of 113,625 jobs in 2020 (see Figure 4). The sector recovered some employment in 2021, and as of April 2022, has recovered 82 percent of the jobs lost between April and July 2020.

FIGURE 4 – Transportation and Warehousing Employment in New York City, 2000 to 2022

In comparison, the City’s overall private sector has recovered just 73 percent of its pandemic job losses.

Among the five boroughs that make up the City, Queens made up nearly half of transportation and warehousing employment in 2021 (see Figure 5). Queens’ outsized share reflects its status as home to two major airports, La Guardia and John F. Kennedy (JFK).

Subsector Employment

The transportation and warehousing sector is composed of several subsectors. Even prior to the pandemic, employment in the City’s transportation and warehousing sector was different than the nation’s, due to the unique needs of the City’s economy. (For further discussion, see the “Pandemic Impact on Travel” and “Freight Transportation” sections of this report.)

In 2019, in the nation, truck transportation, and warehousing and storage, together made up over half of transportation and warehousing employment, as the sector’s main role is the movement of goods through population centers. In contrast, in the City, transit and ground passenger transportation and air transportation, made up of the majority of sector employment. Couriers and messengers, who are often responsible for “final mile” delivery, made up significant portions at the national and local levels (both at 15 percent). The overall difference in pre-pandemic demand for transportation services between the nation and the City has had important implications for their respective recoveries.

FIGURE 5 – City Transportation and Warehousing Employment by Borough, 2019 to 2021

By 2021, in the City, the subsector employment shares changed. Air transportation employed the most people among the subsectors at 26,550 (a decline of almost 5,400 from 2019; see Figure 6). Transit and ground passenger transportation (not including Metropolitan Transportation Authority employment, which falls under the public sector) lost the greatest number of jobs over the period, declining by about 11,800 jobs and driving the overall employment loss in the sector.

FIGURE 6 – City Transportation and Warehousing Employment by Subsector, 2021

On a percentage basis, scenic and sightseeing transportation fared the worst, losing over 75 percent to reach only 539 jobs in 2021. This subsector is heavily reliant on tourists (see the Office of the State Comptroller’s report on the tourism industry).³ NYC & Company, the City’s official tourism agency, does not expect the number of visitors to recover fully until 2024, leading to slower recovery for sightseeing employment than other subsectors.⁴

Employment that is more closely tied to the storing and delivery of goods experienced a significant uptick between 2019 and 2021. For example, warehousing and storage employment rose by 70.7 percent to reach 17,600 jobs compared to only 35 percent in the nation. Courier and messenger employment increased by over 5,100 jobs. However, employment growth in these subsectors combined did not make up for employment loss in transit and ground passenger transportation.

Workforce Characteristics

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 170,570 New York City residents worked in the transportation and warehousing sector in 2019.⁵ The majority of workers in the City’s transportation and warehousing sector earn less than $60,000 (see Figure 7). More than one-half of sector workers are Black or African American and/or Hispanic or Latino male workers without a college degree. The sector also had the highest share of foreign-born workers (58 percent) out of all the major sectors…