Logistics hiring skyrocketed in November as transport and distribution companies staffed up on expectations for an unprecedented holiday-season rush. Delivery, warehousing and trucking operators added a combined 131,400 jobs last month, as businesses restocked inventories and ramped up e-commerce capabilities to meet surging online demand.
Covid-19 is accelerating a rash of global refinery shutdowns in the world’s richest economies. Companies are closing facilities or considering doing so as they reckon with anemic fuel demand and growing competition from newer, more efficient fuel-making facilities in Asia and the Middle East.
Eleven refineries from the U.S. to Japan have said this year that they intend to close. Three have announced partial shutdowns, and at least another five are on the chopping block.