The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) today released its winter 2025 update to the Transportation Economic Trends (TET). TET highlights transportation's role in the economy and explores changes (trends) over time through a series of interactive charts and downloadable data. TET also explains related concepts and data sources for a general audience.

Key findings:

• Labor productivity: Labor productivity measures industries’ output per labor hour. In 2023, transit increased labor productivity by 14.1% and water by 9.8%, while all other modes declined. From 2022 to 2023, labor productivity for rail transportation declined the most, at 8.8%, followed by pipeline (4.0%), warehousing and storage (3.5%), air transportation (2.8%), and truck transportation (0.9%).

Source and Notes:
NOTES: Shaded areas indicate economic recessions.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Major Productivity, MPU0481062, available at https://www.bls.gov/productivity
 

With this data release, six topics have been updated in TET: 

• Transportation Productivity
  • Labor Productivity
  • Total Factor Productivity
  • Revenue per Unit of Output
• Value of Transportation Infrastructure and Other Assets
  • Transportation Capital Stock
  • Investment in Transportation
• Employment in Transportation: Employment in Transportation-Related Occupations
  • Quarterly Average Hourly Compensation (wages and benefits)
• Value of Transportation Infrastructure and Other Assets
  • Quarterly National Highway Construction Cost Index (NHCCI)
• Contribution of Transportation to the Economy
  • Final Demand Attributed to Transportation
• Household Spending on Transportation
  • Total National Household Spending
  • Average Household Spending
    • Overview of Household Spending on Transportation by Income Quintile
    • Household Characteristics and Income Sources
    • Transportation Expenditures by Selected Household Characteristics and Income Quintile
    • Transportation Spending by Income Quintile and Vehicles Available
  • Spending per Vehicle-Mile

About the Transportation Economic Trends Database  

TET data are available for download in comma-separated values (CSV), Resource Description Framework (RDF), Really Simple Syndication (RSS), Extensible Markup Language (XML), and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) formats through the BTS Transportation Economic Trends. 

Follow BTS on X, LinkedIn, and Instagram, or subscribe to email updates for announcements of additional dataset releases throughout the year. 

Contacts: 202-366-DATA(3282) | answers@dot.gov