Transportation requirements vary by sector and within a sector, vary by industry.  Sectors and industries contributing the most to gross domestic product (top left in the figure below) tend to employ the largest number of workers in transportation-related occupations (top right) and use the most transportation (bottom left). As shown in the use of transportation service by industry, some sectors and industries use a small total dollar amount of transportation but require a large amount of transportation per dollar of output, which makes them a transportation dependent sector. Each sector and industry requires a different mix of transportation and transportation-related workers. Explore the requirements for each sector or industry using the drop-down menu.

U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Transportation Economic Trends, available at www.bts.gov/product/transportation-economic-trends.

Transportation's direct contribution to the economy