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Logistics Hiring Surges as U.S. Employment Gains Slow
The overall pace of job growth nationally may be slowing, but not in the logistics sector. Parcel and warehouse operators added 16,100 jobs ahead of the holiday peak shipping season, the Wall Street Journal reported.
This year, “we saw an increase in the number of employees we had to hire by 10% to 12%” for the seasonal peak, Steve Sensing, president of Ryder System Inc.’s global supply chain division, told the WSJ. The division operates more than 300 warehouses across North America.
Courier and messenger firms added 9,900 jobs in November, representing the strongest increase since December 2016, according to U.S. Department of Labor figures released last week. The largest courier services, UPS and Federal Express, are adding tens of thousands of seasonal workers and making significant investments in automation to handle the holiday crush, the WSJ reported.
Storage and warehousing companies added 6,200 jobs in November. Employers in this sector have boosted their payrolls by nearly 50,000 workers over the past 12 months, according to the WSJ.
Similarly, industries that feed goods into logistics and shipping networks signaled confidence in growth expectations with comparably strong hiring in November.
Retailers added a net 18,200 jobs in November, including 39,300 at general merchandise stores such as department stores and warehouse clubs. However, the retail sector lost 14,100 positions at brick-and-mortar clothing and accessories stores, which have been challenged by the advent of online shopping.
Manufacturing payrolls increased by 27,000 last month. Factory activity was stronger than expected, as companies pushed out orders ahead of expected tariff increases, the WSJ reported.
Trucking companies added 4,500 jobs, rebounding from a net loss of 200 jobs in October. Overall, fleets added 36,300 jobs over the past 12 months. That represented the biggest annual increase since 2015, even as companies report difficulty recruiting and retaining drivers.
In the broader U.S. economy, job growth slowed to 155,000 new positions in November, down from an unexpectedly robust 250,000 new jobs in October. Unemployment has held steady at 3.7% for the past few months, matching the lowest rate since 1969.
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- ◦Economy
