Assorted News Friday

Inland delivery issues could become the next bottleneck once the port situation begins to ease. For now, however, the West Coast ports remain clogged.

How autonomous trucks could fix our broken supply chains: Driverless trucks could theoretically be operating 24/7, moving freight from clogged ports to store shelves more quickly and safely, while cutting delivery costs and carbon emissions, too.

The majority of jobs performed in 2018 did not exist in 1940: Compared to preexisting (‘old’) work, new work arises disproportionately in middle-paid production and office work in the first four post-War decades. By contrast, new work creation since 1980 has increasingly concentrated in high-education specialties and, to a lesser extent, low-education personal services.

America is hiring a record number of robots: Factories and other industrial users ordered 29,000 robots, 37% more than during the same period last year, valued at $1.48 billion, according to data compiled by the industry group the Association for Advancing Automation. That surpassed the previous peak set in the same time period in 2017, before the global pandemic upended economies.

A record number of Americans quit their jobs in September: Workers are quitting in search for better pay or better jobs, representing a fundamental shift in America's labor market.

U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly collapsed in early November: Americans grow increasingly concerned about rising prices and the inflationary impact on their finances.

If you're not done with your Christmas shopping yet, you might be done anyway: Two billion 'out of stock' messages an ominous sign for small businesses as holidays near