OTTAWA, Ont. – After an initial contraction in truck driver employment at the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a significant recovery in employment over the past few months, according to Trucking HR Canada.
In a Labor Market Snapshot released Monday, Trucking HR said during the first two quarters of 2020, employment of transport truck drivers declined sharply, shedding 49,000 jobs.
“However, from June to August, the industry added 43,500 employed drivers, returning to well above the 10-year average employment in the occupation,” it said.
Between July and August alone, employment of truckers rose nearly 8% to more than 23,000 jobs.
“The upward trend we are seeing is even higher than predicted, signaling that our return to acute labor shortages could be here sooner than we think.”
The unemployment rate among drivers fell from a high of 12% in June to 6.3% in August, well below the national unemployment rate of 11.4%, Trucking HR said.
The report is based on the Labor Force Survey for August from Statistics Canada.
“The upward trend we are seeing is even higher than predicted, signaling that our return to acute labor shortages could be here sooner than we think,” Trucking HR said.
