Mercer County Career Center of Pennsylvania recently added logistics and supply chain management to its career program after personnel reviewed labor statistic trends and market projections. Anthony Miller, administrative director for the center, claims: “At Mercer County Career Center, we look to see where the needs are… One of those ways, we look at department of labor stats – where are the jobs? At that point, logistics jobs were anywhere from 7 to 10% of the job availability in Mercer County.” Read more…

While the truck and transportation sector lost 36,700 employees in August, the numbers don’t translate to motor carriers closing or any mass layoffs. Instead, many of those jobs were lost as truckers either retired or left trucking altogether. Brad Ball, president of Roadmasters Drivers School, claims that “the driver shortage is caused by a number of things,” adding “Right now, it’s muted because of the economy. The ATA estimates a shortage of 64,000 drivers this year, and that’s down from 78,000 last year.” Read more…

While hiring has been steady this past year in Phoenix, logistic companies are preparing to add even additional workers as they prepare for the brisk sales of holiday shopping season. Due to ongoing staffing requirements in other companies and industries, “seasonal hiring could keep the local unemployment rate at low levels heading in 2024.” Read more…

With many industries worried about losing jobs to technology, truck drivers joined the fray at a recent Capitol Hill hearing on the future of autonomous trucking. Chris Spears of the American Trucking association spoke on behalf of the industry’s largest companies attempting “to quell those fears by asserting that automation is indeed to bring more drivers into the industry – not push them out.” Read more…

U.S. importers have been moving their business away from West Coast ports due to the fraught nature of the labor dispute between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the International Longshore and Warehouse union. The Wall Street Journal reports that ports’ share of US containerized import cargo dropped from 37% to 35% year-over-year in June. Read more…

David Clark, who was the CEO of Flexport, a logistics company, resigned on Wednesday September 6, 2023. After leaving Amazon in June, Clark had a tough time transitioning and faced criticism over his leadership style. Flexport founder Ryan Peterson, the previous co-CEO, will be replacing David as he is reportedly considering a run for governor of Texas in 2026. Read more…

During the heart of the truck driver shortage last year, “Walmart decided its own ranks of 1.6 million employees might want to learn how to drive a big rig for Walmart,” so the company “dangled first-year truck driver salaries of up to $110,000 and a 12-week training program for its Walmart and Sam’s Club store and warehouse workers”  Former retail employees recently constituted the first graduating class from a training center in Walmart’s Sanger distribution center in Denton County, Texas.  Read more…

During the heart of the truck driver shortage last year, “Walmart decided its own ranks of 1.6 million employees might want to learn how to drive a big rig for Walmart,” so the company “dangled first-year truck driver salaries of up to $110,000 and a 12-week training program for its Walmart and Sam’s Club store and warehouse workers” Former retail employees recently constituted the first graduating class from a training center in Walmart’s Sanger distribution center in Denton County, Texas. Read more…

About 30,000 workers are set to lose their jobs as the shipping company Yellow has apparently shut down operations. Being one of the country’s biggest carriers specializing in smaller freights that don’t fill up an entire truck, the closure will “likely affect how certain goods will continue to be delivered.” Read more…