The trucking industry showed a slight gain of 700 jobs in August and unemployment fell to 5.1% according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Labor Department.

The trucking industry ended the month at a seasonally adjusted 1,458,800 jobs for the month, an increase of 39,300 jobs over August 2014.  Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 173,000 jobs for the month, down from the 12-month average of 247,000 job s gained per month.

The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since April 2008 and the number of unemployed persons in the country dropped to 8 million.  Since last August, unemployment has dropped by 1 percentage point and 1.5 million people.

The number of unemployed for less than 5 weeks decreased by 393,000 to 2.1 million people in the month while the number of long-term unemployed – those jobless for 27 weeks of more – held at 2.2 million.

The long-term unemployed made up 27.7% of all unemployment and but has seen a decline in the past 12 months of 779,000 people.