We all know there is a shortage of qualified professionals in trucking.
We don’t ever have enough drivers or technicians, and over the last several years the number of associates working in other roles within the industry have dwindled as well. Pandemic-forced downsizing in 2020 took some of them, but most of the losses (or lack of backfilling) we’ve seen in trucking recently is simply due to age.
The trucking workforce is old, and every day we lose more people to retirement than we bring in through our recruiting pipelines.
I’ve written about the leaks in our recruiting pipeline before; Online Editor Bill Grabarek touched on the same topic in his excellent evaluation of our diesel technician survey last month. There is no doubt we need to do a better job presenting our industry to young people, showcasing our excellent career opportunities and recruiting young professionals to lead the next generation of trucking.
But improving our recruitment efforts alone won’t solve our staffing issues. Globally and domestically, our population is aging.
The United Nations reported in 2019 there were 703 million persons aged 65 and older alive in the world — 9 percent of the global population. Those numbers are projected to jump to 1.5 billion and 16 percent by 2050. Coupled with a consistently declining global birth rate, the world is heading toward a future where each year (nay, each day) the number of people aging out of the workforce will surpass the number entering in.
You thought hiring today was exhausting? Imagine how things will be when every industry is facing the same uphill battle you already are?
