10:00am | Remember jobs? No? Well, basically you would agree to perform tasks and receive money in exchange. That system worked pretty well until recently, when California Jobs went on the Endangered Species list.
But today there is good news for jobs!
In June, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles saw huge increases in shipping traffic come through their gates, reopening an employment market for blue-collar workers in the South Bay region that had been dark for more than one year.
Traffic containers at the Port of Long Beach increased by 27% over June 2009 to 262,053 containers (imports only), according to the L.A. Times. At the Port of Los Angeles, the jump was even more significant at 32% for 730,318 containers. Those numbers are big, and not even in just relative terms. At the Port of L.A., those numbers are the best ever for June and even surpass the rush of 2006.
What it all means is that jobs at the docks were plentiful, a welcome sight to those who struggled to find work over the past few years. As the Times Ronald D. White explains it:
The effects were felt immediately at the nation’s busiest seaport complex. For the first time since the worldwide recession, jobs were so plentiful on the docks last month that veteran union members had to be supplemented by hundreds of part-time workers, known as casuals. That followed a year in which there were no jobs for part-timers and even veterans struggled to find work.
The article goes on to warn that the success isn’t permanent, yet, and it’s true that it may be premature to declare the region’s emergence from the recession after just one good month at the harbors. While the summer is likely to continue being strong there is no telling where shipping numbers will go after that. But one expert interviewed said that success should come quickly to cities near the ports, and Long Beach could see a “new wave of commercial real estate investment,” according to Jones Lang LaSalle vice president John Carver.
Click here to read the full article.