Looking back at the labor market, the year 2022 saw only one month when more than 1 percent of the private labor force was laid off, according to the Harvard Business Review. But early 2023 has been marked by mass layoff after mass layoff. Layoffs aren’t the only indication of a tight labor market. At the end of 2021, voluntary job quits hit a historic high–and the Great Resignation continues.

Black Americans are dealing with the tight labor market uniquely — they are shifting up.

Black Americans “trade up” to higher-paying jobs and are taking advantage of a pandemic-related boom in areas such as transportation. 

In fact, Black workers entered the transportation and utilities supersector more than any other industry grouping in the first half of 2022, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, The Financial Times reported.

Take the Carter Truck Driving Academy, thought to be the only Black-owned trucking school in the U.S. It opened in 2021 during the pandemic and has been busy ever since with many Black students looking to get into the sector. 

“The number of Black women who became truck drivers [over the past year] alone and meaningfully boosted their income was huge,” Julia Pollak, chief economist for the jobs site ZipRecruiter, told The Financial Times.

The move into transportation has also boosted the median income of Black workers across the board. Last year, the median Black worker earned 11.3 percent pay, compared with 7.4 percent for all workers, according to U.S. Department of Labor data.

Black workers had once dominated low-paying service jobs, but had leveled up to higher-paying jobs in areas such as transportation in a shift. This development, say economists, might permanently narrow the racial wage gap.

U.S. Department of Labor data show that in 2019, one in five Black workers worked in the leisure and hospitality sector, which paid an average hourly wage of $20.77. Compare this to truck transportation workers, who earned $29.54 on average.

Typically, transportation jobs do not require college degrees, making the sector easier to transition into.

The industry is not immune to layoffs, but many new Black workers say it’s worth the risk.

“So I do worry that some of the workers who enter that industry are now struggling,” said Carrin Hayes, who quit her job as a special needs teacher in Denver, Colorado, to become a truck driver. “This is a very scary industry, especially for people of color. But once you break through that barrier, you can have people knocking on your door, saying ‘Hey, I heard you have your [commercial drivers license], please come work with me’.”

Pierre Laguerre is the founder of Fleeting, a growing trucking and fleet management services company. (Photo by Fleeting)