Truck-driving jobs on the wane?

A new report from the Federal Government's Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) has shone a light on the changing nature of the transport industry, the research showing the number of truck-driving jobs fell over 2011 to 2016 despite significant growth across the transport, postal and warehousing industries as a whole.

According to the recently released National profile of Transport, Postal and Warehousing Workers in 2016, the number of workers who categorised their job as 'truck driver' fell by 7.5 per cent – or 6400 people – over the five-year period, while the total number of people added to the broader 'TPW' sector (albeit over a longer period, from 2011 to 2018) was 65,700, with 52,200 of that number specifically attributed to road transport (including drivers and myriad other related roles).

The drop seems curious, given the explosion of e-commerce in recent years and the number of other reports forecasting significant growth for the road freight in coming years.

As of May 2019, the TPW sector employed 651,600 people, with transport-related employment accounting for 8.6% of all Australian workers in 2015-16.

Some 77% of TPW workers are male (compared to 52% for all jobs) and over a quarter of all TPW workers are aged 55 or older – significantly higher than the corresponding all-industry figure of 19.2%. The proportion of those aged 55 or over grew faster over 2011 to 2016 in TPW than the all-industry average, by 2.5% compared to 1.9%.

Related reading:
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Changing face of freight movement

The report states that "educational attainment" (the highest level of education achieved by a worker) for TPW personnel improved over the five-year period, with an additional 43,700 TPW workers holding recognised post-school qualifications.

However, people employed by the TPW sector hold, on average, a lower level of educational qualification than the average Australian worker – 53% of TPW workers hold a post-school qualification (compared to 66% for all workers), with 16% holding a bachelor degree or higher (compared to 31% for all workers).

As for income, the report found that earnings growth for TPW workers outpaced the all-industry average by 2.9% to 2.5% over the period, with particularly strong income growth for those in rail and air transport.

The average weekly income for TPW personnel is around 4% higher than the all-industry average, the report found, at $1308 versus $1260. However, the report also found that "the higher incomes reflect the greater number of hours being worked rather than above-average hourly rates of remuneration".

According to the 2016 census, 13.2% of TPW workers had personal annual incomes of over $104,000, which is 0.6% under that of the all-industry average. However, 18.2% of TPW workers had incomes of under $33,800 per annum, compared to 26.3% for all workers.

Click here to view the full 44-page report.