Logistics Management
With the last of holiday season merchandise making its way to retailers, United States-bound imports are expected to see a bump in December, according to the most recent edition of the Port Tracker report issued today by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and maritime consultancy Hackett Associates.
“The U.S. LEI increased in October for a second consecutive month. Although its six-month growth rate has moderated, the index still suggests that the economy will continue expanding into early 2017,” said Ataman Ozyildirim, Director of Business Cycles and Growth Research at The Conference Board. “The interest rate spread and average weekly hours were the main drivers of October’s improvement, helping to offset some of the weaknesses in claims for unemployment insurance and new orders.” – The Conference Board
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
The unemployment rate declined to 4.6 percent in November, and total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 178,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment gains occurred in professional and business services and in health care.
In November, the unemployment rate decreased by 0.3 percentage point to 4.6 percent, and the number of unemployed persons declined by 387,000 to 7.4 million. Both measures had shown little movement, on net, from August 2015 through October 2016.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., November 29, 2016 – MIQ Logistics was named a top service provider in Inbound Logistics magazine’s recent Who’s Who in Airfreight Forwarding guide. This is the seventh consecutive year Inbound Logistics has included MIQ Logistics in its annual listing.
Institute for Supply Management
Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in November, and the overall economy grew for the 90th consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business®.
Source: Cass Information Systems, Inc.
Consistent with what many in the industry have been calling a “more than normal fall surge” in volumes, the Cass Shipments Index was up on a YOY basis for the first time in 20 months. We have seen a wide range of results in the different modes: from continued volume growth in parcel and airfreight driven by e‐commerce, to a sequential improvement in truck tonnage, to less bad rail and barge volume overall. Although it is far too early to make a ‘change in trend’ call, data is beginning to suggest that the consumer is finally starting to spend a little and that the industrial economy’s rate of deceleration has eased. Simply put, the winter of the overall freight recession we have seen for over a year and a half in the U.S. may not be over, but it is showing signs of thawing.
Overland Park, KS, November 22, 2016 —John Carr, President and CEO of MIQ Logistics, was featured in Ingram’s Magazine Listing of The 250 Most Powerful Business Leaders in the Kansas City Area. Each year, 250 leaders in business are selected out of the approximately 2.8 million people in the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
American Trucking Associations
American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index contracted 0.3% in October, following a 6.3% drop during September (a downward revision from our press release last month). In October, the index equaled 131.6 (2000=100), down from 131.9 in September. The all-time high was 144 in February.
Sales. The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that the combined value of distributive trade sales and manufacturers’ shipments for September, adjusted for seasonal and trading-day differences but not for price changes, was estimated at $1,314.6 billion, up 0.7 percent (±0.2%) from August 2016 and was up 0.8 percent (±0.4%) from September 2015.
