Report released on transportation jobs in the U.S.

The U.S. Departments of Transportation, Education, and Labor recently released a joint report about the state of transportation jobs in America.

The report, titled “Strengthening Skills Training and Career Pathways across the Transportation Industry,” provides readers with details about the potential growth areas for transportation employment in the future. These are divided according to occupations, industry subsectors, geographic areas and career areas.

Transportation employers will need to hire and train 4.6 million new workers between now and 2022, which is 1.2 times the current transportation workforce, according to the report.

The report also outlines high-demand, good-paying transportation jobs. It includes an analysis of the patterns in work experience and education that are required for these specific positions.

“Careers in the transportation industry can lift Americans into the middle class or help them stay there, and this report concludes that there will be more job opportunities in the near future,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx said. “We want to fill all these new positions, so industry and government must increase recruitment and help young people get the skills, training and apprenticeships they need to gain entry into these careers.”

Infrastructure remains crucial to the U.S. economy in that it transports workers and goods, and also provides jobs.

"Ensuring that America continues to lead the way in the global economy means not only investing in the physical infrastructure that allows us to move goods and keep up with global demand, but also the skills infrastructure to support this growing workforce,”  U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez said. “Through smart investments in apprenticeships and other work-based training programs, transportation jobs are helping millions of Americans punch their tickets to the middle class."