Truck drivers' earnings sank in 2019, and hundreds of trucking companies have gone bankrupt.

The federal government's August jobs report confirmed that 5,100 truck drivers lost their jobs in that month alone.

It was the first time since March that truckers saw job losses.

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Truck drivers like Chad Boblett, a Lexington, Kentucky-based owner-operator, said 2019 has been a "bloodbath." Rates in the spot market, where loads are moved on demand rather than being facilitated through a contract, are down 15% from last year, when truckers reaped historic profits.

And now the federal government's jobs report has confirmed that truckers are losing their jobs by the thousands. According to preliminary payroll numbers reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics last week, around 5,100 trucking jobs were eliminated in the month of August. An initial prelim ary report released in September said just 4,200 lost their jobs in August, but an October report with new numbers said a full 5,100 lost their jobs.

It is the first time the agency reported a slash in trucking payrolls since March, when 1,200 truckers lost their jobs.

That's also the biggest drop since April 2018, when some 5,500 trucking jobs were removed.

Also in August, transportation employment as a whole contracted by 4,100. Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 168,000.

Indicators from the trucking industry have been sour in 2019. In the first half of the year, around 640 trucking companies went bankrupt, according to industry data from Broughton Capital LLC. That's more than triple the number of bankruptcies from the same period last year — about 175.

Read more: A trucking company's net income plunged from $2.5 million to $1,000 — and it's yet another chilling sign of the trucking 'bloodbath'

New truck orders sank to a nine-year low in July, according to ACT Research. That number rebounded in August, with a 6% month-over-month bump.

What the trucking slowdown means

The slowdown in trucking is worrisome even outside the $800 billion industry.

Trucking is often looked at as a leading indicator of where the rest of the economy is headed. As 71% of America's freight is moved on trucks, companies foreseeing needing fewer trucks or fewer drivers is typically an omen of an economic downturn: If manufacturers are producing less, and people are buying less, there's less of a need to move goods.

Read more: The leading industry group for truck drivers has declared we're hurtling toward a trucking 'bloodbath'

"Because trucking participates in all phases of manufacturing, it increases as manufacturing starts to ramp up, giving it leading indication on economic growth," Steve Tam, the vice president of ACT Research, previously told Business Insider.

When the rest of America is headed for a downturn, freight usually dips first, a new report from Convoy's economic-research division said. Freight has been in a recession since October.

And while retail and consumer spending are trending upward, manufacturing is slowing down — a sign that warns of a recession. According to one key measure, the US saw a contraction in factory activity in August for the first time since 2016. New orders also hit a seven-year low that same month.

"This piece of data is part of the puzzle that helps to push us into recession," Quincy Krosby, the chief market strategist at Prudential Financial Inc., told Bloomberg. "The ramifications of the trade war show up in the eurozone, in Asia and now in the U.S. If the deterioration in the U.S. continues, it's going to feed into the overall labor market."

Of course, the spooky signs in trucking don't necessarily mean the rest of the economy is headed down. The freight industry goes into recession twice as often as the rest of the economy, according to the Convoy study.

Regardless if the rest of the economy gets hit, dozens of truck drivers have told Business Insider that the trucking turndown has hurt their ability to make a living.

"As an owner-operator for 35 years, I have witnessed many ups and downs in the industry, but nothing like this," truck driver Morris Coffman previously told Business Insider. "It is basically a blood bath. Many, many owner/operators and drivers have either lost equipment, or lost a job in the last year."