
Alberta sees increased demand for workers despite decreased unemployment rates in the trucking and logistics sector and an increased flow of females and youth in non-driving occupations, according to Trucking HR Canada’s (THRC’s) latest Alberta Labor Market Information (LMI) report for 2024-2030.

However, the province’s stakeholders are concerned with the aging workforce and are anxious about high input costs. Driver recruitment, retention, and training remain key challenges despite Alberta drivers earning a higher salary than their colleagues nationwide.
“[In this LMI report], we’re seeing rising job vacancies, changing demographics, new concerns and challenges for employers, and interesting wage data,” said Craig Faucette, chief program officer at Trucking HR Canada, in a news release.
Alberta shorthaul drivers earn 8% more
The market analysis showed that Alberta’s shorthaul drivers make 8% more than their counterparts across the country. Longhaul drivers in the province out-earn the national average, too, by 2%.

Alberta employers estimated that, on average, a longhaul driver’s annual income is $67,372, while for shorthaul drivers, the Alberta income premium is even higher, with an average of $53,431 annually.
In 2022, over 47% of employers offered their longhaul drivers increases of 5% and more, with 3% of those employers offering increases of over 10%.
THRC suggests that this was likely a response to high vacancy rates in the industry since compensation rates skyrocketed compared to just two years before that. In 2020, no employers offered compensation increases of more than 5% to their drivers, with nearly 70% of companies offering increases of less than 2%.
Driver employment increase
The strategy must have paid the dividends. In 2023, truck driver employment in Alberta increased by more than 30% since 2021, reaching 50,200 last year. THRC says 1,600 additional drivers were hired over the two years, adding that Alberta accounted for 14.1% of all truck drivers employed in Canada over the past decade.
The job vacancy rate for transport truck drivers fell 16% from record-high numbers in 2022, reaching 4,223 last year. Even though Alberta’s vacancy rate for truck drivers is now at 7.8%, it is still higher than the national average of 6.2%.
This coincides with overall employment trends in Alberta’s trucking and logistics industry. While employment increased sharply in the last five years, unemployment has been “volatile” and rising in 2023.
Labor supply increased but demand for workers increased more
Despite the many challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, employment in Alberta’s trucking and logistics sector has increased steadily since 2019, reaching a 10-year record high of 121,700 workers, THRC says. In 2023, Alberta accounted for 16.9% of Canada’s trucking and logistics workforce.

At the same time, the sector’s unemployment rate showed significant volatility, reaching a 10-year high of 8.3% in 2020, a level not seen since 2016. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% in 2021 and 3.4% in 2022 before rising to 4.8% in 2023. Across Canada, the unemployment rate in the trucking and logistics sector is sitting at 3.6% in 2023, up slightly from 3.4% in 2022 and down from 4.7% the year before.
More women in non-driving roles, aging driving workforce
The workforce demographics are changing, too.
While the proportion of women in the trucking and logistics workforce remained stable at 17% and 4% for transport truck drivers between 2019 and 2023, the non-driver trucking and logistics occupations experienced a 13% uptick in the number of women employed between 2016 and 2021.
At the national level, the trucking and logistics sector saw significant gains in the number of women employed, with an average annual growth rate of 4.9% between 2016 and 2021.

Meanwhile, when it comes to the existing workforce, THRC found that truck drivers are aging faster than non-drivers. For example, the number of transport truck drivers aged 65 years and older grew at an average annual rate of 8.2% between 2016 and 2021, compared to 6.3% in non-driver positions and only 2.8% in the provincial workforce.
Employers’ main concerns
The good news is that driver shortages are no longer the top concern of employers. Forty per cent of surveyed employers listed rising input costs as their top concern.
When it comes to key HR challenges, retention, recruitment, and training top the list. Employers say that high wages alone are not enough to keep truck drivers on board.

The LMI survey found that 75% of Alberta employers believe that providing drivers with incentives such as health/dental benefit plans, contributing to employee RRSPs, and offering health and wellness allowances will help most with recruiting and retaining drivers.
Sixty per cent of respondents selected improving work-life balance for drivers, and 58% of Alberta fleets chose to simplify compensation structures. While 55% of employers believe that offering higher wages will be helpful, across Canada, less than half (46%) feel this strategy will support recruitment and retention of drivers.
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