Truck transportation sector records 8% vacancy rate in Q3

Canada's truck transportation sector recorded an 8% job vacancy rate in the third quarter of 2021, lagging only behind the accommodation and food service sector, the latest data from Trucking HR Canada shows. The unfilled jobs came as the broader trucking and logistics sector expanded to 732,800 employees during the year. In contrast, it employed 642,700 workers a decade earlier.

Truck drivers make up 43% of the sector's workforce, which also includes material handlers, shippers and receivers, HR professionals, and more.

Unemployment in the trucking and logistics market peaked at 6.3% in March and dropped to as low as 3.2% in December. The average annual unemployment rate for transport truck drivers has been 5.4% in the past decade. It was as high as 7.4% in April, but hovered at or below 4% for the remainder of the year.

"This low rate of unemployment indicates that employers have come close to exhausting the pool of potential experienced drivers who are actively seeking work and means that they will be increasingly dependent on attracting, training and onboarding new drivers to replace those who are leaving the occupation through retirement or for other reasons," Trucking HR Canada concluded.

There were 22,990 vacant truck driver positions in the third quarter, with more than 44% of the vacancies unfilled after 90 days.