The logistics workforce is growing. The skills required to succeed in it are changing just as quickly.
The logistics workforce entering the industry today is stepping into an environment that would have been difficult to imagine a generation ago. The work is still grounded in the movement of physical goods, but the systems, data, and digital capabilities surrounding that work have changed dramatically.
When I moved into freight forwarding in the early 1990s, I joined a small freight forwarder as an EDI Manager and eventually moved into 3PL operations. I learned the business by learning all the ropes: airfreight, ocean freight, trucking, warehousing, imports, exports and domestic operations.
The technology around us was very different. We had fax machines and beepers. There were no cell phones sitting in everyone’s pocket. Information moved differently, systems operated differently, and a tremendous amount of the business depended on people knowing what to do next.
More than 30 years later, the tools have changed dramatically.
The need for people who understand how freight actually moves has not.
The Industry I Entered
Early in my career, logistics was learned through proximity to the work.
You learned how a booking moved from request to confirmation. You learned what happened when documentation was incomplete, when a truck was late, when cargo missed a cutoff or when a customer needed an answer before every detail was available.
You learned that transportation is not a series of isolated transactions. It is a chain of dependencies.
Airlines, freight forwarders, trucking companies, warehouses, cargo handlers, customs providers, manufacturers and customers all have a role. When one handoff is unclear, the effect can move quickly through the rest of the shipment.
The systems have become more sophisticated since then. But the underlying need for operational judgment remains.
People still need to understand the physical movement of goods, the information supporting that movement and the decisions required when the plan changes.
The Workforce We're Entering
The labor market is giving us another reason to pay attention.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ current projection window is 2024–2034. BLS projects approximately 26,400 openings per year for logisticians, with a 2024 median annual wage of $80,880. It also projects approximately 18,500 openings annually for transportation, storage and distribution managers, with a 2024 median annual wage of $102,010.
The BLS sources are:
- Logisticians : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
These numbers should get the attention of employers, workforce-development organizations, educators, economic-development agencies and people considering where the next generation of careers will come from.
But the number of openings is only one part of the issue.
We cannot prepare tomorrow’s logistics workforce only for yesterday’s logistics jobs.
People entering the industry will encounter transportation management systems, cargo systems, ERP platforms, analytics, automation, artificial intelligence, digital booking, tracking, exception management and increasingly connected networks of suppliers and transportation partners.
They will need to understand how those tools fit into the work: not simply how to operate a screen.
Software Knowledge Is Not Operational Understanding
Software knowledge matters. But software knowledge alone does not make someone understand logistics.
A dashboard can show that something went wrong. An experienced operator understands what that exception means, who owns the next action, what downstream movement is now at risk and what needs to happen to keep the cargo moving.
That distinction is important.
A shipment status may show that cargo is delayed. The operator still needs to determine why. Was the freight not tendered? Did the truck miss an appointment? Was the booking changed? Is documentation holding the shipment? Did a handoff fail between a forwarder, trucker, airline or handler?
The answer determines what happens next.
The industry needs people who can understand both the physical movement of goods and the digital information surrounding those movements.
That means a strong logistics workforce needs more than technical familiarity. It needs:
- Understanding of transportation terminology and workflows
- Awareness of how quotes, bookings, tracking and delivery connect
- Clear communication across multiple stakeholders
- Practical judgment when an exception develops
- Discipline around documentation, follow-up and ownership
- The ability to recognize when a delay is becoming a service failure
The tools may identify the problem faster than they once did. People still have to interpret the problem and coordinate the response.
Why Training Must Connect to Employers
This is why workforce development has to evolve with the industry.
It is also why we built ImEx Cargo Academy.
The Academy grew out of our experience operating inside the industry. We did not want to build training around an abstract description of supply chain. We wanted people to understand the actual ecosystem they are entering: airlines, freight forwarders, trucking companies, airports, cargo handlers, manufacturers, government, suppliers and the many organizations responsible for moving goods from one point to another.
Today, the Academy includes 35 courses through our workforce training program, covering transportation, cargo, logistics and supply-chain knowledge.
But I see the opportunity as much larger than a course catalog.
Workforce development works best when employers are part of the equation.
Companies know where their talent gaps are. Workers need skills that translate into actual opportunities. Government and workforce programs need measurable outcomes. Educational institutions need stronger connections to industry.
Those pieces should not operate independently.
Training should be informed by the work employers need performed. Employers should have a role in describing the skills, communication habits and operational awareness required for entry-level and advancing roles. Workforce organizations should be able to connect participation to meaningful career pathways.
This is the workforce-continuity issue that does not receive enough attention.
Experienced operators carry knowledge about exceptions, relationships, timing and practical decision-making. If that knowledge remains informal or stays with one person, organizations become vulnerable when experienced employees leave or responsibilities change.
Training and documentation can help turn that knowledge into repeatable operating practices.
Technology Raises the Bar
There is understandably a great deal of discussion about artificial intelligence and automation replacing jobs.
In cargo and logistics, I think the more immediate issue is different.
Technology changes what people need to know to perform those jobs well.
Someone still has to understand why a shipment did not move.
Someone has to understand the handoff between a forwarder, trucker, airline or handler.
Someone has to recognize when an exception is becoming a service failure.
Someone has to understand what the information coming from increasingly sophisticated systems actually means operationally.
And someone has to know what to do next.
The result is not a choice between human capability and technology. The stronger model combines them.
A digitally capable logistics professional should be able to work with systems while also understanding the physical and commercial realities behind the data. That person should know when a status is informational, when it requires action and when it signals a larger risk across the shipment lifecycle.
Digital logistics skills should strengthen operational understanding: not replace it.
Two Sides of the Same Challenge
That is also where our workforce strategy intersects with the work we are doing through Plug-In Freight Ops™.
Plug-In Freight Ops™ is being developed as digital execution infrastructure to coordinate assets, movements, workflows, handoffs and exceptions across fragmented cargo ecosystems.
The Academy and Plug-In Freight Ops™ are different assets with different purposes.
But they respond to two sides of the same industry challenge.
One is about better coordinating the work.
The other is about preparing people to understand and perform that work in an increasingly digital environment.
Coordination infrastructure cannot compensate for a workforce that does not understand the operation. Training cannot reach its full potential if the surrounding workflows are fragmented and accountability is unclear.
The future requires both capable people and better-coordinated execution.
Building Visible Career Pathways
The annual openings projected by BLS represent more than a hiring statistic.
They represent employers who will need people. They represent people who may never have considered logistics as a career. They represent incumbent workers who will need new skills as their jobs change.
They also represent an opportunity for workforce organizations, government agencies, educational institutions and employers to build stronger pathways into an industry that touches virtually every part of the economy.
There are career pathways here.
Our responsibility as an industry is to make those pathways more visible and make sure the training behind them reflects where transportation and supply chain are actually going.
That includes showing people the range of work available across cargo operations, freight forwarding, trucking, warehousing, airport logistics, customer service, dispatch, documentation and supply chain coordination.
It also means connecting training to employers and practical expectations rather than treating workforce development as separate from the operating environment.
That is the work we are building through ImEx Cargo Academy and our Workforce Training Fund programs. The objective is not simply to add more courses. It is to connect industry knowledge, digital readiness, employer needs and workforce opportunity in a more useful way.
After more than three decades in this industry, I believe the combination of operational knowledge + digital capability + workforce readiness will matter considerably more over the next decade than any one of those things by itself.
The logistics workforce is growing.
Now we need to prepare people for the industry they are actually entering.
About Michelle DeFronzo
Michelle DeFronzo is Founder and CEO of ImEx Cargo, a woman-owned logistics and freight-technology company. With more than 30 years in global logistics, she builds modular infrastructure that modernizes access and collaboration in operational industries without replacing existing systems. Her work focuses on platform strategy, ecosystem design, workforce readiness and coordination across complex logistics environments.
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