Middle-skill jobs are expanding rapidly in California.
These are the positions that pay well but require little education beyond high school. Nurses and truck drivers are two of the largest growth areas in Central California, with nearly 25,000 openings in the next three years. One in five truck drivers are over age 55, and trucking companies are scrambling to find qualified replacements for the retiring baby boomers. The median wage for truckers in California is $19.87 per hour.
In 2012, truckers hauled about 111,800 kilotons of freight through The Golden State.

While it is true that there are few educational requirements for a commercial drivers' license in California, potential employers pay close attention to commercial driving records for bus drivers, long-haul truckers and other positions that require a valid CDL. More and more rely on the federal government's Pre-Employment Screening Program report.
In Kern County, the PSP report contains five years' worth of crash data and three years of inspection reports. Employers use the program to predict a driver's risk. The higher the risk, the higher the insurance rates.
Like any other auto-generated report, your PSP score can contain inaccuracies. The report often picks up initial charges as opposed to final dispositions. Sometimes those inaccuracies can be cleaned up.
Before you apply for a job as a truck driver, have an attorney review your PSP score and look for ways to raise it. Sometimes a knowledgeable traffic lawyer can go back and get your record changed. A few points could be the difference between getting the job or being unemployed.