The trucking industry shed 700 jobs in May from the month before, according to a new report from the U.S. Labor Department.

Despite the drop, employment in trucking is up greatly from earlier levels with about 40,000 jobs being added in the past 12 months and around 152,000 added from three years ago.

The trucking figures include only jobs in the for-hire sector and not those with private fleets or those in other sectors such as construction.

This came as the federal government reported a net gain of 175,000 new payroll jobs in May, while the unemployment rate moved slightly higher from 7.5% in April to 7.6% in May.

Bob Costello, American Trucking Associations chief economist, described the hike in the unemployment rate in his Twitter feed “as a good sign” because that indicated more people are entering the labor force.

A loss of several thousand jobs in manufacturing was not surprising following recent reports that the sector is not performing as strong in the current quarter as it was earlier. In contrast, retailers added 28,000 jobs in anticipation of increasing sales.

Employers have added an average of 155,000 jobs the past three months while May gains nearly matched the average increase of the previous 12 months of 172,000.