The market for truck drivers

Getting a signing bonus is often associated with top young athletes. Now, taking a job driving a chemical truck in the U.S. can earn you a signing bonus of as much as $5,000 — and then there are also recruiting bonuses, retention bonuses and safety bonuses.

Those are the tactics that Randy Strutz, president of Quality Carriers in Tampa, Florida, is using to fill positions as unemployment lingers near the lowest level since before the last recession. The situation is cropping up across more industries in the U.S., as businesses feel increasing pressure to offer better wages and incentives to attract workers.

“It’s been a challenge to get good, qualified drivers,” said Strutz, who supervises about 2,500 truckers at the company owned by private-equity firm Apax Partners. “I expect we’ll probably have to spend more money to find applicants.”

That is from Patricia Laya.  What does it say about the job prospects for the remaining able-bodied, male unemployed?  There has been some recent coverage of video games, and incarceration, now it is time for more consideration of “can’t pass a drug test.”