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THE TECHNICIAN SHORTAGE: How Bad is It?

Published Tuesday, March 01, 2005

The growing shortage of technicians serving the trucking industry is not a problem that's going from bad to worse — it's a problem that's going from bad to right off the cliff. First the raw numbers: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the U.S. currently employs 818,211 automotive service technicians and mechanics and 249,230 bus, truck and diesel engine specialists. Paul Taylor, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Assn., says there are currently about 32,000 technician job openings each year. Projections call for an additional 6,000 positions a year over the next five years, bringing ...

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