Conflicting economic forecasts, inflation, re-imagined trade routes, Fed interest rate hikes, and a White House economic policy targeting gas and diesel, have everyday people worried about future unemployment. But the hard numbers appear to indicate a career as a CDL professional ranks among the safest, good-paying occupations heading into 2023.
“A persistent economic puzzle is why labor is still so tight amid slowing growth, high inflation and growing fears of recession,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Gross domestic product growth slipped into negative territory in the first half of the year. Borrowing costs have risen steeply as the Federal Reserve boosts interest rates in an attempt to reduce inflation. Even so, monthly payrolls have grown an average of 438,000 from January through August, nearly three times their 2019 pre-pandemic pace.”
Companies are working hard to retain employees by increasing wages and offering incentives. Our everyday experience includes “hiring” signs in the windows of restaurants, fast-food chains, and retail outlets. Some believe that younger demographics simply don’t want to work, or at least not put in full-time hours at wages that have fallen behind the troubling inflation rates. But it’s more likely the case that employers who pay well and offer job security in this sometimes confusing economy are prevailing.
“I don’t think we’ll see mass layoffs,” James Knightley, chief international economist at ING, reportedly said. “We are going to see companies prefer to hoard their labor rather than do a quick fire and then rehire because the challenges of hiring right now are incredibly intense.”
Those sentiments are rippling across the trucking industry. Walmart, known for offering among the highest fleet truck driver salaries and benefits, recently announced it would onboard 1,500 full-time truck drivers. Its fleet already boasts upwards of 13,000 CDL holders reportedly earning salaries north of $100,000. If the country was headed into economic retraction, many of the consumer staples sold by the big box giant would likely suffer. The fact that Walmart and many other organizations that need truckers to haul freight are hiring is a strong indicator the industry is not being negatively impacted.
Although economists continue to say the labor market is “cooling,” the unemployment rate stood at 3.7 percent in August. That’s not far from the half-century low experienced during the Trump Administration when the economy was surging and inflation was in check. Employers reportedly added 315,000 jobs during August and competition over truckers remains fierce.
Despite these upheavals the mainstream media uses as clickbait, people are working, gas prices have fallen, and truckers remain in high demand. With a workforce shortage above 80,000, the number of people taking truck transportation jobs only grew by 0.8 percent from July through August, leaving plenty of growth opportunities. That doesn’t even put a dent in the demand for CDL professionals, making trucking jobs among the safest, good-paying occupations in this topsy-turvy economy.
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