USDOT report provides transportation jobs outlook

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor
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The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), along with the departments of Education and Labor, released a joint report, "Strengthening Skills Training and Career Pathways across the Transportation Industry," which details future employment hot spots in transportation by industry subsectors, occupations, career areas and geographic areas.

 

It also identifies good-paying, high-demand transportation jobs and analyzes patterns in the education and work experience required for entry, as well as on-the-job training requirements to help new entrants gain greater competency.

The report concludes that there will be more job opportunities in the near future due to expected growth, retirements and turnover in the transportation industry. Each year, USDOT provides more than $51 billion in surface transportation construction funding to build and maintain highways, bridges and public transportation systems. For every $1 billion in transportation infrastructure investments, 13,000 jobs are projected to be created over the next decade.

In 2014, approximately 53 percent of current transportation workers were 45 years or older, which creates significant workforce development challenges. Transit (35 percent) and railroad (29 percent) respectively had the highest percentage of workers over 55 years old. From 2012 to 2022, an additional 4.2 million transportation workers will need to be hired to fill vacancies created by separations. Employers will need to hire and train a total of 4.6 million new workers; that’s 1.2 times the current transportation workforce.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said, “Industry and government must increase recruitment and help young people get the skills, training and apprenticeships they need to gain entry into these careers.”

Recruiting and training new and current workers responsible for the operation, maintenance and construction of America’s transportation infrastructure will be critical to maintaining a system that meets the economic and security needs of a growing American population.

“Ensuring that America continues to lead the way in the global economy means not only investing in the physical infrastructure that allows us to move goods and keep up with global demand, but also the skills infrastructure to support this growing workforce,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez. “Through smart investments in apprenticeships and other work-based training programs, transportation jobs are helping millions of Americans punch their tickets to the middle class.”

While demand for transportation workers will vary by region, subsector and occupation, these workforce changes will result in increased job opportunities for skilled and semi-skilled workers across the transportation sector.

“In today’s society, it is important that all of our students are well-equipped with the knowledge and skills to compete in a global economy,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “There are incredible opportunities for Americans in the transportation industry and the department is fully committed to working with leaders in the industry to promote partnerships between education and workforce institutions in order to support training programs that will help our country succeed.”

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