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WASHINGTON — Promoting productive and rewarding careers for the freight workforce is a priority of the Biden administration as it continues to address bottlenecks at ports, the nation’s top transportation officer said.

Ships looking to avoid COVID-induced delays in China are making a beeline for Shanghai, causing growing congestion at the world’s biggest container port.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during a Jan. 11 tour of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach lauded the efforts that have kept freight moving through the facilities amid crushing backlogs.

Online shopping for holiday gifts last year in the U.S. grew at the slowest rate since at least 2014, according to Adobe Analytics, after a blowout year in 2020.

Global air cargo growth slowed sharply in November as demand was hit by supply chain disruptions, partly because COVID-19 restrictions left workers stuck in quarantine, causing labor shortages.

Benjamin Whitely headed to a Safeway supermarket in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 11 to grab some items for dinner. But he was disappointed to find the vegetable bins barren and a sparse selection of turkey, chicken and milk.

Ascend, launched Jan. 10 as a dry van truckload carrier and freight brokerage, announced it named Michael McLary CEO.

The volume of traffic through the Port of Mobile’s container terminal hit a record in 2021, the Alabama State Port Authority announced Jan. 10.

Amazon.com Inc. employees in Bessemer, Ala., will vote by mail next month in a rerun election on whether to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board announced Jan. 11.

WASHINGTON — The World Bank is downgrading its outlook for the global economy, blaming continuing outbreaks of COVID-19, a reduction in government economic support and ongoing bottlenecks in global supply chains.