The number of persons over 15 years of age employed in transport occupations in the European Union has decreased by 6% compared with 2019, from 11.6 million to 10.8 million people, according to data released by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office.

These transport jobs include heavy truck and bus drivers (35% of people employed in transport occupations), transport and storage labourers (22%), car, van and motorcycle drivers (19%), messengers, package deliverers, luggage porters and other elementary workers (12%), refuse workers (5%), locomotive engine drivers and related workers (3%) and travel attendants, conductors and guides (3%).

Among transport jobs, conductors and guides registered the largest drop in employment in 2020 (-16% in the number of people employed compared with 2019), followed by transport and storage labourers (-11%).
 
The vast majority of the transport workers were men (85%). Over one third of people employed in transport occupations in the EU were 50 years old or over (37%) or 35 to 49 years old (36%). On the other hand, a slightly lower but significant share of them were aged less than 35 (29%).
 
In 2020, on average, there were 29 transport workers per thousand people in the EU. The highest rates per region (on the NUTS 2 level) were generally recorded in the south-eastern regions of the EU.
 
South-Muntenia in Romania was on top with 65 transport workers per thousand people, followed by three Bulgarian regions: North-West (58), North-Central (54), South-Central (51), as well as Central and Western Region in Lithuania (51).
 
In contrast, Walloon Brabant in Belgium recorded the lowest rate of transport workers per 1 000 people (15), closely followed by South Aegean in Greece (16), ahead of Burgenland in Austria and Melilla in Spain (both 18) as well as Calabria in Italy (19).
 
The rate in Cyprus was close to the EU average, with 30 transport workers per thousand people.
 
Eurostat’s data concerns regions at the NUTS 2 level (which is in between NUTS 1 - usually federal or autonomous regions - and NUTS 3 - usually local authorities) as defined by Eurostat in consultation with member states. For statistical purposes, Cyprus is considered one region on all three levels.