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Logistics Sector Boosts Payrolls as Shipping Demand Rises
Complementing an increase in speculative development of industrial product is fresh evidence that the logistics sector is continuing to add jobs. Logistics sector hiring maintained a brisk pace in July as delivery firms, trucking companies and warehouse operators added 15,600 jobs ahead of fall shipping season, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Courier and messenger company payrolls rose by 7,600 jobs in July, the biggest monthly gain since March, according to preliminary figures from the U.S. Department of Labor. Spurred by e-commerce and the home delivery of online purchases, the sector—which includes parcel carriers—has been in expansion mode for 18 consecutive months.
Warehouse employment gained last month as well, with 3,600 positions added in July. And trucking firms, which in recent months have had to turn down business because of a shortage of drivers, added 4,400 workers across the U.S.
The WSJ reported that truck operators have added more than 27,000 jobs over the past 12 months, in spite of challenges stemming from recruiting and retaining drivers in a tight labor market. For instance, Old Dominion Freight Line, a leader in the less-than-truckload sector, increased its head count by 16% compared to a year earlier.
“Our hiring over a long run changes with our shipment count,” Old Dominion CFO Adam Satterfield told the WSJ’s CFO Journal earlier this month. “We haven’t seen any indication from our customers that things are going to slow down.”
The North Carolina-based trucking firm also opened five new service centers during Q2. That dovetailed with an 11% increase in shipments from the same period in 2017.
Along with increases in head count, transport companies also have been announcing wage increases this year, although July wage gains in the sector were 1.9% year-over-year, compared to 2.7% for all employment sectors. Industry experts say, however, it could be several months before those wage increases trigger more hiring.
“Carriers have to have profits sufficient enough to go out and recruit drivers,” Matthew Harding, VP at Atlanta-based research and consulting group Chainalytics, told the WSJ.
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- ◦Economy
