Transport is the invisible engine of our everyday lives, moving people, goods, and economies. But behind the scenes, Europe’s transport workforce is facing a storm of challenges and transformations. From an ageing workforce to electric vehicles and digital disruption, it's becoming clear: the wheels of change are turning fast.
🌍 More than moving—Why transport matters
Transport isn't just about getting from point A to point B. It connects us to schools, jobs, healthcare, and each other. The transport sector contributes around 5 % to the EU's gross domestic product [1], which is great, but it’s also one of the EU’s major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for over a quarter of the total. Cars, lorries, and buses are the biggest culprits.
🧑🔧 The human engine: Who keeps Europe moving?
Did you know transport is a major employer? The sector employs more than 6 million people, representing 3.1% of total EU employment. But here’s the twist, almost 90% of them are in land transport (like road and rail) [2], and the sector is heavily male-dominated, ageing, and battling serious labour shortages. Many young people just aren’t attracted to the long hours, tough conditions, and lack of flexibility.
🚌 Crisis in the driver’s seat
Furthermore, the automotive workforce is facing significant challenges from technological advancements to global shifts in production and supply chains. The industry is also experiencing huge shifts in jobs. Over 80,000 of positions were lost across the European automotive sector between June and December 2024 [3] alone, making it the worst year for automotive employment since the financial crisis.
Public transport systems are already scaling back services due to a lack of drivers. In some places, routes are cancelled on weekends and nights. Meanwhile, only 6% of freight drivers are under 25 [4], and just a fraction are women.
🤖 The tech tide: Automation and Digitalisation
Automation and AI promise cleaner, faster, smarter mobility. But they also put many low and medium skilled jobs at risk. Imagine automated buses, AI logistics, or autonomous trucks, great for efficiency, tough for workers without digital skills.
And the change isn’t just on the roads. The auto industry, especially in countries like Germany and Slovakia, is shifting to electric vehicles. With fewer parts and simpler assembly, electric cars require fewer workers, but they demand new tech skills most current employees don't yet have.
💚 Just transition: Making sure no one is left behind
Europe’s goals? Equality between women and men is one of the European Union's founding values and it aims for Climate neutrality by 2050. Greening transport will be crucial to achieving this, but getting there means more than building better batteries. It means protecting jobs, reskilling workers, and ensuring fairness.
A “just transition” means:
- Supporting workers displaced by automation or green tech
- Investing in digital and STEM skills (especially for underrepresented groups)
- Improving working conditions and wages
- Promoting diversity, inclusion, and gender balance in traditionally male-dominated fields
👩🔧 Diversity: The missing link
But the future isn’t just electric, it’s also ethical, digital, and fair. And that means rethinking not just technology, but the human side of transport too.
Only 1 in 5 transport workers in Europe are women. In some roles, like truck drivers, that number is closer to 1 in 100. Why? It’s not just stereotypes. It’s also unsafe or uncomfortable working conditions, a lack of childcare flexibility, and limited access to training and leadership roles.
Initiatives are growing to change this, but inclusion is more than just a buzzword. It must be built into every stage, from education to employment, and increased diversity leads to greater innovation, improved productivity, as well as a more inclusive workplace.
🧠 Skills for a greener future
New skills, innovation and new technologies also mean new jobs. Nearly half of employers in the EU can’t find people with the right skills. The future transport workforce needs technicians, coders, data analysts, behaviour scientists and people with social skills. But it also needs upskilling programmes so current workers don’t get left behind.
And that means working together, policymakers, educators, unions, and employers, to build lifelong learning systems that actually work.
🚲 A new era of movement
Not all the changes are bleak. Urban mobility is ready to become more local, greener, and smarter. New business models such as sharing rather than owning vehicles, delivery platforms and flexible gig roles are redefining work, while they need stronger social protection, they are expanding the job offers.
🧠 Reskilling and Rethinking: The lifeline for transport’s future
As automation, AI, and green technologies reshape the transport landscape, reskilling and upskilling is no longer optional, it’s essential. The sector is undergoing a seismic shift, and without the right skills, many workers risk being left behind.
🚧 Why reskilling matters
- 40% of EU employers say they can’t find people with the right skills [5].
- Low-skilled, routine jobs are most at risk from automation.
- Digital and green transitions demand new technical, analytical, and soft skills.
But here’s the good news: reskilling isn’t just about survival, it’s about unlocking new opportunities, and it allows us to improve the gender and diversity balance.
🛠️ What reskilling looks like in practice
A just and inclusive transition that empowers workers, not replaces them means:
- For manufacturers: new production and supply value chains combined with new skills
- For planners and managers: upskilling in data analytics and safety tech, AI tools, and sustainable mobility planning and design
- For drivers and service providers: training in digital logistics systems, eco-driving, new maintenance regimes (e.g. for electric drivetrains and battery management)
- For all: boosting digital literacy, soft skills, and adaptability
And it’s not just about formal education. Lifelong learning, apprenticeships, and on-the-job training are key.
🌍 Rethinking transport as a social imperative and public right
Reskilling isn’t just an economic issue, it’s a social one. It helps to:
- Reduce long-term unemployment
- Address inequalities by closing gender and diversity gaps
- Strengthen Europe’s competitiveness in a global market
But it requires investment, coordination, and political will. That’s why the EU’s Year of Skills campaign, launched in 2023, campaign is pushing hard to make lifelong learning the norm. In this respect, the EU funded project Reskilling is a major research and innovation project running from 2025 to 2027. It brings together 20 partners from across Europe to:
- Develop tailored training programmes for workers in freight, public transport, and logistics
- Create a CCAM Employment & Skills Observatory, a knowledge hub to guide policy and workforce planning
- Promote inclusive, co-created solutions that involve cities, unions, employers, and educators, fostering a just and inclusive transition that empowers workers.
🚦Final Stop: A call for action
Europe’s transport sector is at a crossroads. If the transition to green, digital transport is to succeed, it must be:
- Just: fair to all workers, especially the most disadvantaged
- Inclusive: bringing in women, youth, migrants, and minorities into the workforce
- Proactive: reskilling, investing, and modernising working conditions
This isn’t just about clean mobility, it’s about the people driving it forward. Change is inevitable. Justice is a choice.
Want to know more?
Visit the whole research paper at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2950298524000072?via%3Dihub
Authors: Lucia Mejia Dorantes & Heather Allen
[1] ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/15216629/20875401/KS-01-24-021-EN-N.pdf
[2] Six million people working in EU transport in 2021 - News articles - Eurostat
[3] industriAll Europe & https://www.clepa.eu/insights-updates/press-releases/press-release-wors…
[4] Research for TRAN Committee: Trends, challenges and opportunities in the EU transport labour market
[5] Skills and qualifications - Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Details
- Publication date
- 27 November 2025
- Author
- Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport