Employment at the L.A. and Long Beach ports is up in response to the increased traffic, according to daily employment dispatches for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. On the wharves, employment was about 13% higher in January compared with the same month in 2010, the daily work dispatches show, and part-time “casuals,” who fill in when there aren’t enough union workers to go around, were getting work. In January 2010, casuals were mostly not needed at all.
But inland trade-related jobs will continue to lag behind trade increases until employer confidence returns, economists said.