Your Package Has Arrived: Transportation and Warehousing in Portland MSA
December 15, 2020 In 2019, the United States Postal Service delivered more than 800 million packages between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. From Black Friday and Cyber Monday to holiday shopping, Americans rely heavily on our postal system to move our purchases where they need to be. With a growing number of those sales happening online, UPS estimates a 12% to 20% increase in online sales during December 2020. To keep up with demand, businesses are hiring thousands of new employees across the country. See this article to learn more about holiday hiring trends in Oregon!Portland is following that trend as employment in transportation and warehousing was up 1.9% from September to October 2020. In a typical year, this sector sees significant job gains between September and December with a steady decline going into the summer. But, this isn’t a normal year. Transportation and warehousing started the year by shedding more jobs than usual, suggesting COVID-19 impacted the sector as well. From December 2019 to April 2020 transportation and warehousing lost 6,300 jobs or a decline of 12.7% – a much steeper drop than what Portland saw a year ago. In 2019, there was a decline of 3,200 jobs or 7.3% during the same time period. However, since April 2020, transportation and warehousing in Portland has bucked its normal trend of slowly losing jobs until the late summer months.
