Get On-Board – Endless Transportation Careers Ahead

Jobs in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area to Soar

By Angela M. Cranon, M.A.

Editor-in-Chief

With trillions of dollars being spent from a variety of sources to improve transportation and streets in the city and county of Los Angeles, the doors are opening for careers in the transit and transportation industry. Taxpayers’ dollars are in motion as approximately 40 different transportation projects are underway to make traveling around the big metropolitan area more efficient.

In Los Angeles, the transportation industry is booming as city and county officials focus on mass transit services (public transportation) to get in and around the City of Angels.

Long-term transit and road construction projects like the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project (construction cost $1.21B), the Gold Line Foothill Extension (construction cost $735M), the Purple Line Extension (construction cost $4.07B), Agoura Road Widening (construction cost $35.85M), and the Airport Metro Connection (construction cost $200M), to name a few, not only amount to less people on freeways, but more residents employed.

The goal to make Los Angeles more mobile creates an abundance of current and future job openings waiting for the right people to fill. The Los Angeles County’s Metro (https://www.metro.net/projects/), alone, is opening doors to nearly 776,000 career opportunities, a potential boost of $79.3 billion to the local economy, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.

Because of these projects, the line of work in the transportation industry, particularly the public transit industry workforce, is endless, and, Los Angeles,’ transition from one-person car drivers to mass transit (moving people from point A to point B) for efficiency should be prompting residents to get on-board to prep for skills that match transportation jobs. Whether it means going to a trade school or college, changing careers, or looking for a better opportunity, employment stability in this market looks promising and should be sought after.

From high-powered careers to blue-collar labor jobs, part-time or full-time, all skill-leveled workers can take advantage of this employment-rise in the transportation field and receive attractive salaries and benefits. Salaries for these jobs can range from the low 30s to six figures a year. While some employers will give on-the-job training, others require vocational or college degrees to fill spots. Certificates, formal training, or degrees in technology, computer science, mechanical engineering, logistics, business management, engineering and urban planning, and the like, are just a few examples of fields to seek.

Key positions available include transportation general managers, passenger engineer trainees, administrative aids and assistants, logistics staff, senior business development- electricity

transportation specialist, transportation coordinator, chief planning officers, senior departmental analysts, senior director construction manager, bus operators, locksmiths, travel coordinators, public and transportation inspectors, subway operators, route supervisors, and clerks.

For more titles and descriptions of a variety of transportation jobs take a look at https://www.thebalancecareers.com/transportation-job-titles-2061509.

To lure more people into the transportation field, the Universities and Grants Programs (U&GP) offers grants, scholarships, fellowships and internships to students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate transportation programs throughout the United States. Scholarships are also available from the International Transportation Management Association (ITMA).

Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University, Cecil College Mid-Atlantic Transportation and Logistics Institute, California State University San Bernardino, Colorado Christian University, Southern New Hampshire, and University Southern Careers Institute, are just some of the colleges that offer degrees to work in the transportation industry. Visit https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/business-supply-chain-management-logistics to find more college.

Although people of color have been underrepresented in logistics education and careers relative to the percentage of minorities in higher education and in the labor force, respectively, the number of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) with logistics programs, though limited, offer logistic degree programs within the business and social science programs (Addus and Lee 1992). Attention to this void continues to rise in the HBCUs.

Websites publicizing transportation careers are numerous. To learn more about these programs, check out https://www.metro.net/projects/), https://jobs.metro.net/jobsearch.aspx, https://www.ladottransit.com/employment.html, and https://learn.org/articles What_Degree_Programs_are_Available_in_Transportation_Management.html.

To find similar job types, using Google, insert key words as “transportation jobs”, “LAMetro Jobs”, and, “careers in transportation.” Use some of the same key words to search the common social job websites as Linkedin, Monster.com, Indeed.com,

To locate more transportation projects in Los Angeles, go to https://www.metro.net/interactives/datatables/project/.

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