The Rise of the Truckers: An Overview of March’s Job Market

semi trucks with mountains in background

After a decrease in February, the trucking industry experienced an encouraging resurgence last month with almost 6,000 jobs added. This bumps the total number of new positions since January up to nearly 5,000. 2022 saw trucking jobs increase by nearly 61,000, indicating a positive job outlook for those in the profession. In addition, the transportation sector as a whole also saw job increases during March which provides further support for continued growth going forward.

Despite the disruptions caused by the pandemic, employment in transportation sectors has been remarkably resilient over time. In total there have only been three drops since April 2021: a short dip of 12,900 jobs in November 2022 followed by 20,500 and then 37,100; but overall 10 thousand more positions still remain than before this period began.

Last month saw a bustling boost in the transportation sector, with couriers and messengers at the forefront of job growth. Further gains were made for air/trucking transport and transit/ground passenger services alike – only three subsectors recorded losses: warehousing storage suffered an unfortunate dip alongside minor declines experienced by pipeline & rail transportation.

The transportation industry has seen remarkable growth this year, with an impressive 22,000 jobs added just in 2023 so far. Even more impressively, the sector experienced a jump of 261,000 new positions throughout all of 2022.

March brought some good news for the transportation and warehousing sector as average weekly earnings rose from $1,020.98 to an impressive $1,028.61 due to a slight rise in wages! Production and nonsupervisory employees saw the greatest benefit with their hourly pay increasing by 2 cents per hour – up incrementally to $28.47.

The trucking industry is on the rise and with it comes an influx of job openings for those interested in this line of work. While the specifics are different from state to state, one thing is for sure: With new safety technologies being implemented in all commercial vehicles, truckers now have the opportunity to increase their earnings and enjoy a more secure career path than ever before. And as more companies are relying on their supply chains to keep business moving, they are needing to hire additional drivers to meet their growing demands. Ultimately, what we can take away from this is that while the job market may be volatile when looking at a high-level overview, there is potential and growth — especially in logistics-driven industries, like trucking — that can provide both stability and financial opportunities for workers seeking them out.

 

Source: Land Line