Trucking Jobs Decline, Again! – Is This a Sign of an Upcoming Economic Slowdown?

I don’t know about you but for the past several years we have been hearing about the ongoing shortage of truck drivers and what the industry needs to do to resolve the ongoing trend.  Well, an article that appeared in the Journal of Commerce recently caught my eye because it stated that even though the US economy added jobs in March, 2016, the number of employees in the for hire trucking industry declined.  In fact over 2400 jobs were lost in March and when you add those numbers to the February, 2016 numbers, the job losses amount to over 3000.

These trends are not good signs for the trucking industry as they appear to support the fact that trucking firms are continuing to find it more difficult to hire new, qualified drivers.  The article goes on to state that this could be a clear sign of the need for these trucking firms to raise the salary levels they are offering in an effort to attract new and again, qualified drivers.  If the salaries go up, the shipper’s rates will also have to go up to support those higher salaries. As we all know shippers are all for adding new drivers, but not usually OK with paying higher rates in return.

While overall employment in March increased specifically in Retail Trade, Construction and Health Care, job losses were also felt in the air, rail transportation sectors as well as in manufacturing.  So, it appears to me that the job losses in these various job sectors are not strictly a reaction to the inability to find qualified truck drivers, but may be more of a sign of an impending weakening economy.  The fact is that the transportation sector is usually the first industry sector to start feeling the pinch of a slowdown in the economy.

On another side of the coin, in the recent National Association of Manufacturers Outlook Survey for the first quarter of 2016, signs indicated that the manufacturing industry is concerned about many challenges it will face in the coming year.  Chief among these challenges are the following, in the order of magnitude according to the survey:

1. Rising Health Care/Insurance Costs
2. Unfavorable Business Climate, e.g. taxes, regulations
3. Weaker Domestic Economy and Sales for Their Products
4. Strengthened US Dollar relative to Other Global Currencies
5. Attracting and Retaining a Quality Workforce
6. Weaker Global Growth and Slower Export Sales
7. Rising Raw Material Costs for Products
8. Challenges with Access to Capital

These are very interesting bullet point comments expressed by the survey respondents.  One item that jumped out at me was #5, attracting and retaining quality workers.  This comment raises questions within the manufacturing sector which are similar to the challenges being faced in the transportation sector, namely what is being done to attract a quality workforce; and, are the processes working?  If not, what should be done to attract these qualified workers? And finally, how can academia, manufacturing and the transportation sectors work together to ensure a steady flow of new and qualified workers to meet each sectors business challenges now and well into the future?

We know there are many programs in place now in many schools and universities geared towards this goal, but the real question is, should there be more of an effort placed on this collaboration effort than is currently being provided – we certainly think so.