30 percent of civilian jobs require some driving in 2016

Thirty percent of civilian jobs in 2016 required driving a passenger vehicle or some other type of vehicle while on the job. A larger share of jobs required driving a passenger vehicle—such as an automobile, van, or bus (20.8 percent)—than some other type of vehicle (9.2 percent)—such as a tractor-trailer, construction vehicle, train, or aircraft. In some occupations, all or nearly all jobs required some driving. These occupations include light truck or delivery services drivers and police patrol officers.

Among automotive service technicians and mechanics, 88.2 percent of jobs required driving a passenger vehicle. This driving may involve moving the vehicles to or from the locations where they are repaired or serviced. The driving also may involve test driving to diagnose problems or confirm they have been repaired properly. Similar to automotive technicians, 66.6 percent of jobs among bus and truck mechanics and diesel engine specialists required driving.

Other jobs involve at least some driving to see customers, clients, or healthcare patients or to travel to different locations of a business. Examples include personal care aides (65.1 percent), lawyers (64.8 percent), home health aides (60.8 percent), electricians (58.4 percent), and registered nurses (10.5 percent).

These data are from the Occupational Requirements Survey. To learn more, see "Occupational Requirements in the United States — 2016" (HTML) (PDF). Civilian jobs are wage and salary jobs in private industry or state and local government.