20 hottest jobs in transportation

Capt. Calvin Flanigan looks out after his final flight as a Delta pilot on March 8, 2013.

Credit: Andria Brooks

Credit: Andria Brooks

Capt. Calvin Flanigan looks out after his final flight as a Delta pilot on March 8, 2013.

Always wanted to be a pilot, a railroad conductor or a flight attendant?

Your childhood dreams could be well within reach, if you get the right training. The transportation industry is expected to add 417,000 jobs nationally by 2022, according to a report issued on Tuesday by the U.S. Departments of Transportation, Education, and Labor.

The report, "Strengthening Skills Training and Career Pathways across the Transportation Industry,” identifies “hot spots” for employment in transportation by industry subsector, occupation, career area and geography. It also identifies good-paying, high-demand transportation jobs and details what kind of education and experience are necessary to get them.

“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 in a press release.

Thirteen out of the top 20 highest demand transportation jobs pay above the national median wage of $35,540.

There's one not-so-good piece of news for Georgia. New openings will be concentrated in the West Coast, the Gulf Coast, the upper Mid-Atlantic, several Mountain States and the Midwest.

Job growth in Georgia's transportation industry is pegged at 9 percent through 2022, as opposed to some of the hotter job markets like Texas (19 percent), Louisiana (20 percent), California (18 percent) and Wyoming (18 percent).

The report also highlights a gap in the demand for and supply of highly skilled workers. The projected annual job openings are 68 percent larger than the number of students who will be completing related educational programs annually.

The top 20 jobs, in order from the most projected job openings to the least:

  1. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers (1.23 million job openings)
  2. School or special client bus drivers (330,700 job openings)
  3. Laborers and freight, stock and material movers (264,210 job openings)
  4. Transit and inner-city bus drivers (200,530 job openings)
  5. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs (194,110 job openings)
  6. Highway maintenance workers (141,010 job openings)
  7. Flight attendants (96,210 job openings)
  8. Construction laborers (89,990 job openings)
  9. Bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists (86,850 job openings)
  10. Dispatchers (85,450 job openings)
  11. Light truck or delivery services drivers (84,810 job openings)
  12. First-line supervisors of transport machine operators (75,310 job openings)
  13. General office clerks (70,020 job openings)
  14. Airline pilots, copilots and flight engineers (57,870 job openings)
  15. Aircraft mechanics and service technicians (57,150 job openings)
  16. Customer service representatives (53,370 job openings)
  17. Operating engineers and construction equipment operators (47,980 job openings)
  18. Railroad conductors and yardmasters (45,130 job openings)
  19. Locomotive engineers (37,190 job openings)
  20. General and operations managers (35,230 job openings)

Read the full report here http://cte.ed.gov/initiatives/advancing-cte-in-state-and-local-career-pathways-system.