Shortage of Vehicle Technicians Continues to Worsen

Posted by Site Administrator on December 21, 2018 at 1:06 pm

TechForce Report Reveals Shortage of Vehicle Technicians Continues to Worsen

Overall Gap in Supply and Demand of New Entrant Transportation Technicians Continues to Grow Despite Slight Uptick in Diesel Certifications

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — December 19, 2018 — TechForce Foundation® has released a Transportation Technician Supply & Demand Report updating its “Transportation Technician Supply” and “Transportation Technician Demand” reports for 2018, that reveals the transportation technician shortage continues to worsen.

The Technician Supply & Demand Report supplements the previous reports, adjusting prior projections to reflect newly published research from the National Center for Education Statistics and TechForce’s own analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Citing both increasing demand for professional techs and a declining supply of new techs entering the industry, the update concludes that the technician shortage is increasing in severity despite industry efforts to organize around the issue and a slight uptick in new post-secondary degrees and certificates for future diesel technicians.

“The technician shortage is not a new problem,” said TechForce Director of National Initiatives Greg Settle, who co-authored the report with Doug Young, Managing Director of Wilcap LLC. “However, close monitoring of actual industry demand, as well as available supply, is critical to better understanding exactly what we are up against.”

The original Technician Demand and Technician Supply reports, published in 2017 and 2018 respectively, found that the estimated demand for “new entrant” vehicle technicians was more than triple previous estimates, and that post-secondary supply of new entrant vehicle technicians has not kept up with the spike in demand. The Technician Supply & Demand Report update shows that these trends have continued, further increasing the scope and impact of the technician shortage.

“While the shortage continues to worsen, the good news is the transportation industry is organizing to do something about it,” said Jennifer Maher, TechForce CEO. “TechForce Foundation’s FutureTech Success® campaign is leveraging the industry’s collective voice to inspire the next generation of technicians and address the root causes of the shortage.”

You can request the Technician Supply & Demand Report along with the original Technician Demand and Supply Reports here. You can also learn more about TechForce’s FutureTech Success campaign at futuretechsuccess.org.

About TechForce Foundation

TechForce Foundation is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) with the mission to champion students to and through their technical education and into careers as professional transportation technicians. The Foundation distributes more than $2.0 million in scholarships and grants annually, thanks to its generous corporate sponsors and donors, and is spearheading FutureTech Success®, the industry-wide initiative to help encourage and support more young people to pursue the vehicle technician profession. For more information, visit http://www.techforcefoundation.org.

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Media Contact:Jennifer Maher, Executive Director
TechForce Foundation
623-445-0933 direct
602-550-0371 cell
jmaher@techforcefoundation.org

J. Larry Bloodworth replied 5 years, 1 month ago 4 Members · 3 Replies

3 Replies

Joseph Van syoc

Member
January 9, 2019 at 12:34 pm

It is only going to get worse. The supply of “dumb kids” sent to auto shop class, and motor sports enthusiasts that the industry relied on for decades is drying up, and people capable of doing the job can make much better money elsewhere
Steven Anderson

Member
January 22, 2019 at 2:30 am

Hmmm, so-called “millenials” don’t want work in our sphere. They all want to be bussinessman or rappers, idk
J. Larry Bloodworth

Member
February 28, 2019 at 12:04 am

In the attached article, one program is training inmates from the local jail to be automotive technicians.

If a person was a poor student in school, they will be a poor student in real life. On the job, or not on the job, the outcome is usually the same.

Shortage of Vehicle Technicians Continues to Worsen

TechForce Report Reveals Shortage of Vehicle Technicians Continues to Worsen

Joseph Van syoc

Steven Anderson

J. Larry Bloodworth