Logistics Hiring Soars, Trump Targets Amazon, U.S. Seeks Brake on Auto Imports

This story originally appeared on The Wall Street Journal 

By: Paul Page

Logistics companies are boosting payrolls almost as fast as companies are shipping goods. Truckers added 6,700 workers last month, giving the sector its strongest quarterly job growth since 2012, WSJ Logistics Report’s Erica E. Phillips writes. The sector led strong employment in shipping operations that were also tied to e-commerce, as parcel carriers also added 5,800 jobs in March while warehouse and storage payrolls rose by 2,500 hires.The payroll gains are part of broader moves by transportation operators to shore up capacity in line with growing shipping demand. The Cass Freight Index measuring U.S. domestic road and rail shipping jumped 11.4% in February and the index for freight spending grew at an even faster rate, signaling that companies are paying more to rush goods to markets. Broader national hiring wasn’t as strong, with just 103,000 jobs added in March. But that still signals a growing economy, and should be enough to keep shipments and transport payrolls growing this spring.

President Donald Trump is stepping up his attacks on Amazon.com Inc., even though of much of his ire is aimed at The Washington Post. Mr. Trump’s public criticism over sales taxes and the online retailer’s dealings with the U.S. Postal Servicehave grown as his private anger at the Post’s reporting on his administration has increased, the WSJ’s Peter Nicholas reports, and it’s unclear so far how his barbs may touch Amazon’s business. Questions over internet sales taxes have hovered in Washington for several years without congressional action. Amazon says it collects sales taxes on its own inventory in all 45 states that have this type of tax and has voluntarily started collecting taxes in some municipalities. Still, many small retailers on Amazon’s marketplace don’t collect sales taxes outside of the states where they are based. Any changes to the broader national rules on tax collections could be aimed at Amazon but also would hit those online sellers.

U.S. coal exporters may get another boost to their business because of problems Down Under. Fears of disruptions to Australia’s mammoth steel-making coal export operations have halted a slide in seaborne coal prices, the WSJ’s Rhiannon Hoyle reports, and may spark extra demand for more American shipments at a time when producers of many other commodities face rising trade tensions. A cyclone recently interrupted shipments and pushed up the price of coking coal. And now Australian rail operator Aurizon Holdings Ltd. is threatening to slash capacity on the country’s largest coal-export rail network after a regulatory decision to cap shipping prices. U.S. coal shipments, which have grown to account for some 16% of the global export market, had been tipped to fall in 2018 as Australian exports recovered. But Macquarie analysts now say cuts to Aurizon rail routes could push U.S. exports up to some 60 million tons, their highest in about six years.

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