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Supply
Chain by the Numbers |
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- March 10, 2022
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US Job Openings Continue to Exceed Workers; Diesel Prices Soaring; Walmart Canada Plans to Offet eCom Delivery CO2; Untuckit still Waiting for Winter Garb Orders |
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$11.26
Million |
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| Incredibly that was the number of job postings in the US in January, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. It’s incredible because job openings outnumbered available workers by nearly 5 million in the month, in one of the tightest US job markets in history. At an industry level, manufacturing saw a big gain in job openings, rising by 109,000 However, in some modest good news for businesses, the so-called Great Resignation ebbed a bit in January, with quits dropping to a still very high 4.25 million, a decline of 3.4% and the lowest number since October. As a share of the labor force, the quits rate declined to 2.8% from 3% the previous two months. All this is pushing wages higher, but not nearly enough to keep up with soaring inflation. The US Consumer Price Index for February came in with a rise of 7.9%, far higher than wages are rising, driven partly by rapidly rising gasoline costs. |
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| That is the net carbon emissions for last mile ecommerce deliveries by Walmart Canada, with the company saying this week it plans to soon be “carbon neutral” for its fulfillment operations. But to get there, Walmart is not yet eliminating CO2 emissions – direct or indirect – from its delivery process. Rather, the company said, it will pay for various carbon offsets equal to its emission levels produced by its order fulfillment. Walmart said it would pay for offsets in such areas as programs that protect forests, enable composting and waste diversion, aid refrigerant management and convert biomass into fuel. Walmart is partnering in the effort with a company called EcoCart, which will provide Walmart with quarterly impact and emissions reporting, which will allow the retailer to track estimated emissions and set benchmarks for third-party carrier partners. Walmart said the program will contribute to its global goal of achieving zero emissions by 2040 without the use of offsets for Scope 1 (direct) and 2 (indirect) greenhouse gas emissions. |
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177,000 |
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That is how many items that were supposed to arrive via ocean container by the end of December for apparel maker Untuckit but that still hadn’t arrived by the beginning of March, acording to an article this week in the Wall Street Journal. When the winter garb does show up, the company plans to pack it away for next year – absorbing lost sales this year of about $15 million, as global shipping woes continue on. Under Armour, for example, said in February that cancellations related to spring and summer orders as a result of supply chain capacity constraints would decrease revenue in the current quarter by about 10 percentage points. Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said the chain is facing shortages of women’s shoes, handbags and toys. Dr. Sheng Lu, a professor at the University of Delaware who analyzes global trade data, estimates that retailers will see average delays of one to two months on shipments this spring – quite the delay indeed. |
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That was the rise on average of diesel fuel in the US last week, according to the weekly report from the Energy Information Administration. That is an all-time high jump for a single week, and comes as oil prices reached about $130 per barrel for Brent crude, up from about $98 right before Russian invaded Ukraine. Consumers are course are similarly paying the price as the cost of gasoline is also soaring, but the rise in the costs of what truckers pay for diesel fuel will have many ramifications. Economist Rajeev Dhawan, the director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University in Atlanta, told Transport Topics magazine that carriers “can handle $4 a gallon, but if it goes to $5 a gallon, the business model for trucking companies and others — it won’t work.” And of course rising trucking costs will impact the cost of about everything, either pushing existing inflation even higher, triggering a recession in the US – or both.