U.S. supply chain indicators update tracks freight capacity and labor trends

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US supply chain indicators update

Highlights

The October 2026 Bureau of Transportation Statistics release updates measures including containership capacity at U.S. ports, rail speeds, and average terminal dwell times.
Labor indicators now include job openings and turnover rates for transportation, warehousing, and utilities, as well as updated employment counts for trucking, warehousing, and rail.
Freight costs tracked in the update include rates to and from Shanghai, U.S. diesel sales prices, personal consumption expenditures on durables, goods imports, and grain barge rates.

October dashboard updates across freight markets

As reported by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the October 2026 release updates a wide set of measures used to track the U.S. supply chain. The agency says the monthly freight information is organized into four sections, port data inside the gate, port data outside the gate, freight movement, and transportation labor and capacity tightness.

The latest update includes indicators on the capacity of containerships calling at U.S. ports, the number of containerships anchored off U.S. ports, and the number of containerships awaiting berths at all U.S. ports. It also refreshes rail-related measures including average train speed, rail cars online, average terminal dwell time, average dwell time at major terminals, average dwell time at Class I railroad terminals, rail non-intermodal carloads, rail intermodal units, containers on rail flat cars, and trailers on a rail flat car.

Labor and market indicators in the release include job openings and labor turnover for transportation, warehousing and utilities, along with employment counts for truck transportation, warehousing and storage, and rail transportation. BTS is also updating freight rates to Shanghai, freight rates from Shanghai to LA, personal consumption expenditures of durable goods, U.S. goods imports, U.S. diesel sales prices, and downbound grain barge rates.

Federal monitoring role since 2020

BTS says it began tracking supply chain indicators in 2020 at the direction of the White House, reflecting a longer-running federal effort to improve visibility into freight network conditions. The Department of Transportation convenes the interagency working group behind the indicators, with participation from relevant DOT modes and the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Commerce and Labor.

The structure of the monthly release gives shippers, carriers, policymakers and logistics operators a consolidated view of capacity, congestion, labor availability and freight costs. By combining port, rail, labor and pricing data in one recurring update, the dashboard is serving as a reference point for assessing changes in U.S. freight flows and supply chain tightness.

Our earlier article on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2025–2026 working papers outlined the agency’s research focus on post-pandemic pricing behavior, inflation measurement, productivity, and changing labor-market patterns such as remote work. It also highlighted planned methodological upgrades—like automated outlier detection and improved survey design—that can sharpen the quality of official data used by policymakers and market participants.

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