BC to require 13,431 new drivers in next decade: study

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VANCOUVER, BC – British Columbia’s transportation and construction industries will need to fill 110,000 jobs in the next decade – and truck drivers will be among those most in demand, according to Asia Pacific Gateway Labor Market Outlook 2016-2025.

The study projects 13,431 openings for truck drivers, representing 2,237 new positions. Another 2,050 transportation managers will be required, largely to offset retirements.

“The trucking sector is expected to grow by 7.4%, producing just over 12,000 new positions,” the study finds. “Eighty percent of job openings are created by replacement, as 29% of today’s workforce retires.”

“The Asia Pacific Gateway continues to be an economic driver for the province and part of our ability to capitalize on this opportunity is to have the labor in place to support it,” says Krista Bax, executive director of the Asia Pacific Gateway Skills Table.

The Lower Mainland is expected to experience the biggest challenges in filling the job openings from 2019 to 2023. In Northern B.C., “boom and bust” cycles will reinforce hiring challenges over the next decade.

Employers will need to rely more on workers from other occupations than immigrants when filling the jobs, the study adds. “Most immigrants will continue to arrive in the Lower Mainland first before moving elsewhere in the province for work. Distinctive to this year’s findings includes greater labor mobility from other provinces which can be linked to the economic downturn in Alberta.”

 

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John G. Smith is Newcom Media's vice-president - editorial, and the editorial director of its trucking publications -- including Today's Trucking, trucknews.com, and Transport Routier. The award-winning journalist has covered the trucking industry since 1995.


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