This fall brought school re-openings and a return to in-class learning on a wide scale. It also brought a scramble to get bus drivers back behind the wheel. While most school drivers answered the call and returned to work, we found that about 13% of them are missing in action.

The ADP Research Institute used anonymized client payroll data to analyze school bus driver employment before and after the onset of the pandemic. We built our study sample by searching for the job title “school bus driver” at school systems and transportation companies.

We looked for changes related to demographics such as age and gender. And we tracked drivers over time to see what they did after the pandemic hit and, later, when schools reopened