Barcelona, October 8, 2018.- The US trade wars with other economic powers seem to positively affect the American economy. At the moment The American logistics operators struggle to attract new employees and respond to the high demand for consumer products. According to WSJ:
“Logistics hiring surged in September at the fastest pace in a year, as warehousing and transportation companies ramping up for peak season added 23,800 jobs. Warehousing and storage payrolls grew by 8,400 positions last month, according to preliminary figures the Labor Department released Friday, highlighting the soaring demand for workers in distribution centers to handle rapidly growing online commerce orders.
Warehouse operators are raising wages, boosting bonuses and recruiting early in the tightest labor market in decades. Randy Tucker, chief executive for the Americas at supply-chain contractor Geodis, said the company has raised pay by about 20% over the past three years and will respond if the Amazon increase ends up raising the market rate for warehouse labor in regions where Geodis operates.
“You’re flanked on both sides,” Mr. Tucker said, between “the labor market that’s shrinking and an industry that’s needing more labor.”
Demand for warehouse workers is so strong that some employers aren’t screening for marijuana use, while others are bringing on workers without waiting for the results of criminal background checks, said Chris Beckage, a senior vice president with staffing firm Acara Solutions Inc.
It’s no longer enough to post jobs on websites, Mr. Beckage said. “We’re going to bowling alleys, churches, community centers,” he said. “We’re getting creative just to get to people.”
Overall U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 134,000, the smallest gain in a year, as unemployment fell to 3.7%, the lowest rate since December 1969. The overall warehouse and transport sector payroll growth was the strongest since those businesses added 25,400 jobs in September 2017.
Retailers cut 20,000 jobs last month, meantime, the latest sign that store owners are pushing more payrolls through distribution centers to meet consumers’ e-commerce demands.
Online sales growth is expected to outpace in-store growth this holiday season, putting more hiring pressure on fulfillment operations and distribution centers. Research firm Forrester projects holiday e-commerce sales will increase by 14% in 2018 over last year to $151 billion, while in-store sales will rise by 1.7%, to $567 billion.
Courier and messenger companies that deliver packages to businesses and homes are staffing up to meet that demand. The sector added 5,100 jobs last month, and delivery giants United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp. are looking to add 100,000 workers and 55,000 workers, respectively, for the holidays.
Trucking companies added 4,900 jobs in September, pushing overall payrolls to their highest level in at least a decade. Truckers have added more than 33,000 jobs in the past 12 months even as they report difficulty in hiring and retaining drivers”.
We complete this information with information from Supply Chain Digital: The research also found that digital transformation enables typical procurement organisations to reduce process costs by 30%, and world-class procurement organizations by 22%.Technology has always played an important role in enabling world-class performance through improved efficiency and effectiveness.
But procurement is now at an inflection point, the research found, and both world-class and typical procurement organisations will need to turn to digital transformation to ensure that they can continue to reduce costs and add value. In part, world-class procurement organisations improve efficiency by standardising and automating routine tasks, the research found.To improve effectiveness, world-class procurement organisations continue to significantly outperform peers in service delivery productivity. In combination, for a typical company with $10bn in revenue, attaining world-class performance in procurement represents as much as $6mn in potential savings annually.
World-class procurement groups also have a significantly higher ROI than peers, generating a 10.7X payback on investment in procurement, more than twice that of typical procurement organisations, the research found. But cost reductions and savings are forecasted to level out in coming years, making it necessary to find new ways to continue to unearth value. Across a wide range of metrics, world-class procurement organisations also demonstrate higher levels of effectiveness than peers. They have 2-3X fewer transaction discrepancies, a clear sign of higher-quality process execution.
Sources consulted:
- Wall Street Journal
- Supply Chain Digital
- Foreign Trade USA
Photos: Amazon
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