The last few years have been hard on transportation companies. As e-commerce sales have soared, trucking and package delivery businesses have had trouble estimating the amount of extra help and equipment they would need for holiday deliveries. Now the transporters are trying to get ahead of the curve by staffing up early to prepare for the deluge in business. Jennifer Smith reports at the Wall Street Journal:
Package-delivery firms are shoring up their staffing in big numbers as they prepare for a holiday season likely to see another surge in online sales.
Courier and messenger companies added 3,900 jobs in August, the fifth straight monthly increase, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its monthly jobs report released Friday. The parcel sector, which is bulking up as demand to deliver goods to consumers’ homes grows, has added 7,000 jobs over the past two months and more than 30,000 since August 2016.
The warehousing and storage sector added 900 jobs in August, as fulfillment centers that process online orders ramped up recruiting in a tight labor market.
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