Global labour shortages in shipping, transport and logistics have shifted from a “pandemic hangover” to a structural challenge that’s reshaping how goods move around the world.
Even as freight markets have cooled from the extremes of 2021–22, companies are still struggling to find (and retain) enough people to run ships, trucks, warehouses and last-mile networks.
What’s Driving the Shortage?
Across advanced economies, vacancy rates in many sectors stayed unusually high well into 2023, with transport and storage among the most affected. The ILO links this to ageing workforces, skills mismatches, changed worker preferences post-COVID and weak training pipelines.
Three Big Forces at Play
Demand shock that never fully reversed: e-Commerce volumes and expectations for fast delivery remain structurally higher than pre-pandemic, permanently raising labour demand in warehouses and last-mile.
Tough working conditions: Long hours, time away from home, safety risks and relatively low pay make trucking and seafaring less attractive to younger workers.
The Human Chain: Rethinking Logistics for the Age of Automation
Skills gap and demographics: Many experienced drivers, port workers and officers are retiring faster than new entrants can be trained. Ageing populations in Europe, North America and parts of Asia (notably Japan) amplify the squeeze.
Shipping: A Looming Seafarer Crunch
The maritime industry is staring at one of its most serious workforce challenges in decades. The International Chamber of Shipping and BIMCO have repeatedly warned of a potential shortfall of around 90,000 trained officers by 2026, as fleet growth outpaces new officer supply and seafaring loses its appeal as a long-term career.
This shortage is particularly acute for specialist roles (engine officers, officers qualified to work on LNG and alternative-fuel vessels) just as the industry is expected to comply with tougher decarbonisation and safety rules.
Without enough qualified crew, capacity constraints and schedule reliability issues in container, tanker and bulk markets could easily resurface in peak seasons.
Road Transport: Not Enough Drivers Behind the Wheel
Road freight is experiencing its own structural crunch. The International Road Transport Union (IRU) projects that the global truck driver shortage could exceed 2.4 million positions by the end of 2026, with North America, Europe and Japan hit hardest.
In the United States alone, industry groups estimate a shortage of about 78,000 drivers in 2024, on track to reach 160,000 by 2030 without decisive action.
Similar pressures are visible across Europe, where ageing driver populations and stricter working-time rules are biting, and in Japan, where new regulations on driver hours and a shrinking youth population are forcing companies to choose between automation, outsourcing and recruiting foreign drivers.
The result is higher wage bills, increased reliance on subcontractors, and patchy service levels during demand spikes.
Warehousing and Last Mile: Automation's Race Against Labour Scarcity
On the warehousing side, labour scarcity is now seen as the single biggest operational risk by many operators, even ahead of cost inflation or supply volatility. Surveys in 2024–25 show over half of warehouse operators planning additional investment in automation over the next three years to cope with hiring difficulties and wage pressure.
Major retailers and 3PLs are responding by:
Rolling out dense storage and goods-to-person systems
Using robots for picking, sorting and replenishment
Deploying AI tools for labour planning and workflow optimisation
Amazon, for example, now operates hundreds of thousands of warehouse robots and continues to scale automation across its fulfilment centres; other retailers such as Macy’s report significant gains from highly automated distribution hubs that cut fulfilment times from days to under 24 hours.
Carriers and parcel players are also testing robots that can unload trucks – historically one of the most physically demanding manual jobs – to ease hiring pressure and improve safety.
Outlook for 2026: Tight But Transforming
Looking ahead to 2026, labour in shipping, transport and logistics is likely to remain tight rather than catastrophic, but the nature of the shortage will continue to shift simply from headcount to skills and capability.
Officer and specialist seafarer shortages in shipping are expected to peak around the middle of the decade, particularly on technologically advanced and alternative-fuel ships.
Long-haul truck drivers, dangerous-goods specialists and cross-border drivers will remain in short supply, especially in markets with ageing populations and restrictive immigration policies.
The global logistics market is forecast to grow at double-digit rates through 2033, driven by e-commerce, reshoring and regionalisation of supply chains. Even with heavy investment in robotics and AI, this means continued strong demand for planners, technicians, data specialists and multi-skilled warehouse and transport staff.
By 2026, robots and automated systems will likely handle a growing share of repetitive, physically intense tasks such as trailer unloading, high-bay pallet movements and basic picking.
Human roles will skew towards exception handling, equipment supervision, maintenance, customer communication and network optimisation.
Policy and HR Shifts
Governments and industry bodies are under pressure to improve training pathways, recognise foreign qualifications, support apprenticeships and attract more women and younger workers into logistics.
The shipping industry, for example, is calling for national strategies to address seafarer shortages and diversify the talent pipeline, while Japanese operators are openly planning to recruit more foreign drivers to keep fleets moving.
Targeted Automation and Upskilling
By 2026, the global labour shortage in shipping, transport and logistics is unlikely to “go away.” Instead, it will evolve. Companies that treat labour simply as a cost to squeeze will continue to struggle with vacancies, high turnover and service instability.
Those that combine better working conditions and career paths with targeted automation, upskilling and smarter network design will be best positioned to secure the talent they need – and turn today’s labour crunch into a source of strategic advantage.
Read More: The New Standard for Logistics Performance - See Everything, Miss Nothing