Dongguan Guanghang International Logistics Co., Ltd. is another peak shopping season, but the shortage of manpower facing the merchants has once again emerged. The latest research shows that in the past four years, the United States has been facing the biggest problem of shortage of supply chain professionals, especially digital technology talents, which will limit the development of enterprises.
 According to Deloitte and other research institutions, the US manufacturing industry alone has 2.2 million jobs unavailable. With the deepening of the automation of the supply chain, many warehouses have begun to use robots, automated truck transportation, and daily digital analysis, etc., and this also puts higher requirements on the operation level of existing employees.
 In this situation, during the peak shopping season every year, logistics companies and retailers always try their best to hire thousands of temporary workers to deal with it. This year is no exception, but recruiting is more difficult than ever. According to the latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, its unemployment rate reached its lowest level in 50 years in September this year, especially since 2008 the unemployment rate has continued to fall. Lucas Hiler, president of strategic sales at Aerotek, a recruitment company, said that if the unemployment rate during the Vietnam War was taken into account, the unemployment rate in September in the United States should be the lowest in history.
 Therefore, supply chain companies must increase productivity, increase employees and retain employees.
 Analysis believes that this year may become the employment trend coordinate in the next few years, especially the development of e-commerce, and more enterprise employees will meet the transportation and warehousing positions. In September this year, UPS announced plans to hire 100,000 people during the peak season, and FedEx plans to hire 55,000 people by the end of this year. Retailers have also increased their efforts to meet the needs of sorting centers and logistics positions. According to Deloitte research, this year's peak sales in the United States may increase by 5% year-on-year. Target said it would hire as many as 130,000 seasonal employees, Kohl's plans to hire 90,000 people, Macy's Department Store plans to temporarily hire 80,000 people, Dollar Tree plans to hire 25,000 people, and GAP plans to hire 5000 people.
 But Hiler is not optimistic about the prospects of recruitment and is worried about the professionalism of temporary workers.
 United Parcel and FedEx are full of confidence in temporary recruitment, because they usually have prepared and responded. A United Parcel spokesman said that in the last week of October last year, the company had completed 60% to 70% of the 100,000 recruitment target. However, K-Ratio marketing president Kyle Lintner still reminded that based on the transportation pressure in the previous season and the historically low employment rate, the pressure on retailers and logistics companies is still very large. The National Retail Federation predicts that the retail scale in this year's peak season will increase by 3.8% to 4.2% over the same period last year. Patrick Houston, general manager of consumer products at AlixPartners, said that many companies now choose factory employees for retraining during the peak season to meet labor demands.
 At the same time, technology seems to make up for the shortage of labor. Houston said that in the past two years, US supply chain companies have begun to increase productivity and increase investment in automation and data analysis. According to Deloitte research, manufacturing companies using smart technology have increased their labor productivity by 3% from 2015 to 2018. The importance that logistics companies attach to technology is particularly noteworthy. DHL's robot investment last season increased productivity by 25%. United Parcel can sort 100,000 parcels per hour at the Super Sorting Center in Atlanta. Its more than 20 automated sorting facilities worldwide are 35% more efficient than traditional facilities. It is reported that by the end of last year, 70% of the ground parcels of United Parcels were processed through automated facilities.
 Lintner pointed out that especially artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things have brought great help to enterprises. On the transportation side of the supply chain, a typical manifestation of technology to solve the labor shortage is self-driving vehicles. In addition to technology, other options for optimizing operations are also feasible. For example, reducing the idling rate of trucks can also increase productivity. However, "in the foreseeable future, automation is still the main mode of joint operation with people. Technology is created by people, controlled by people, but only creates different forms of work." Many companies are now redesigning employee training programs to adapt The new working environment, of course, the most important thing is the improvement of income level.

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