Transportation Job Ads: Do They Align with the Sector’s Technology-Driven Transformation?

This paper offers insights into the alignment of sought-after versus ideal transportation workforce skills through an analysis of 8,132 job advertisements in the United States. Required skill sets for various jobs were extracted from online job-posting websites by using text mining tools. These data were compared with (1) the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) database that documents the workforce skill expectations of transportation industry professionals, (2) an industry survey capturing expert insights into disciplinary knowledge needed in the future transportation workforce. The analysis also investigated emerging transportation job titles to assess the industry’s hiring landscape driven by technological transformation. The findings aligned with literature about the high percentage of opportunities for middle-skill jobs, and transportation jobs generally requiring a mix of soft and hard skills, reflecting the industry’s diverse demands. Comparison with the industry survey indicated that the ideal workforce skills and necessary integration of disciplines such as social sciences were not explicitly stated in job ads, especially under preferred/required skills that determine the main candidate pool. Some transportation job ads include technology-related skills such as Python and SQL. However, many emerging jobs are yet to appear in the transportation industry. For emerging job positions, salary offers were found to be noncompetitive with other industries. The advertisements on emerging job titles were also found to be more explicit about the required skills and disciplines compared with transportation job advertisements. Overall, this paper identifies the gaps between ideal transportation workforce needs and the hiring landscape and provides recommendations to bridge those gaps.