The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) says recent data from Statistics Canada confirms the trucking industry is facing a demographic crisis.

The new data shows Canada is facing record retirements at a time of high job vacancies and low unemployment. The CTA says it’s especially severe in trucking, an industry it says has the oldest workforce in Canada.

StatsCan noted the number of seniors is growing six times faster than the rate of children. In trucking, at least 32% of drivers are 55 years or older, compared to 21.8% in the broader labor force.

“While demographics, industry conditions and policy issues have all contributed to retirements and exits, trucking has at the same time continued to see a declining share of young people entering the industry over the past few decades,” says CTA president Stephen Laskowski. “Combined, these forces are leading to a demographic cliff in one of the economy’s most important sectors. This is fundamentally unsustainable and a huge red flag for the Canadian economy and North American supply chain.” 

There are more than 23,000 job vacancies in the Canadian trucking industry right now, the CTA says, citing Trucking HR Canada data that also predicts the totals could climb to 55,000 vacancies by the end of 2023.

The CTA has put forward several recommendations to the federal government it says will help the industry address its labor shortage. Among them are: Funding training for entry-level drivers; a wage subsidy to support the onboarding and training of new drivers; streamlining the Temporary Foreign Worker Program; offering tax credits to support investments in training and onboarding; offering more rest stops; and cracking down on Driver Inc. nationally.