CT supply-chain specialists up hiring
As the holiday shopping season ramps up, several Connecticut companies that are vital links in supply chains are accelerating their hiring here and nationwide.
The expanding headcounts at firms such as Greenwich-based GXO Logistics and XPO Logistics and Stamford-based Pitney Bowes reflect the continual growth of e-commerce, with demand through digital channels still surging despite supply-chain disruptions that have flared up during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those companies belong to an industry — transportation, warehousing and utilities — that has accounted for much of the hiring in Connecticut since the beginning of the pandemic. About 70,000 people worked in that sector in the state in September, up 10 percent from a year ago, according to the state Department of Labor.
“The massive tailwinds of automation, e-commerce and outsourcing remain unabated, and our blue-chip customers rely upon us for our best-in-class solutions and to stand up technologyproficient warehouses with speed, reliability and at scale on a global basis,” GXO CEO Malcolm Wilson said last week on the company’s quarterly earnings call.
In the third quarter, GXO produced revenues of approximately $2 billion — up 25 percent from the same period in 2020.
GXO, which describes itself as “the world’s largest pure-play contract logistics provider,” completed in August its spin-off from XPO Logistics. The GXO headquarters are at 2 American Lane, adjacent to XPO’s headquarters at 5 American Lane, in Greenwich’s northwest corner.
GXO employs operates worldwide with about 94,000, including approximately 25,000 in the U.S. Last month, it announced
plans to hire more than 9,000 employees across the U.S., and Canada ahead of the holiday shopping season.
In Connecticut, it is planning to hire about 35 people to work at the headquarters or its facilities in North Haven and Windsor. The company already employs about 400 across those three locations.
Also last month, GXO announced an agreement with Abercrombie & Fitch to open a 715,000-squarefoot distribution center in Goodyear, Ariz. Expected to create more than 300 jobs in the Phoenix area, the facility will function as Abercrombie & Fitch’s new hub for its West Coast operations.
At the same time, XPO continues to grow the transportation operations that it has kept following the spinoff. They are primarily truck brokerage and “lessthan-truckload” shipping services.
As the No. 190 company on this year’s Fortune list, XPO recorded third-quarter revenues of about $3.3 billion, up 22 percent from its total a year ago for nonlogistics operations.
XPO is hiring for about 30 positions in Connecticut, including about 20 jobs at its headquarters and several openings for drivers, dockworkers and operations managers at its facilities in Bridgeport, Meriden and Windsor.
Nationwide, XPO is aiming to hire about 700 truck drivers.
The company is also expanding its infrastructure. Last month, it opened a 150,000-square-foot lessthan-truckload facility in Chicago Heights, Ill. When it is fully operational, the center will employ more than 200.
XPO employs approximately 42,000 employees worldwide, including about 27,000 in the U.S., and
around 150 in Connecticut.
Shipping-and-mailing firm Pitney Bowes, which employs about 11,500 — including approximately 1,000 in Connecticut — is also hiring. Last week, it announced it would add thousands of seasonal warehouse associates and drivers to meet e-commerce demand for the holiday season.
The No. 664 company on this year’s Fortune list does not have an e-commerce hub in Connecticut, but it is hiring for about 75 positions in its home state focused on areas, including global ecommerce, marketing and communications, HR and IT.
Facing supply-chain challenges, vaccine mandates
As supply-chain interruptions roil the global economy, Pitney officials expect some headwinds during the holiday season.
“Daily headlines talk about the supply-chain disruptions, and larger players are already carrying out an impact on the results or outlook,” Pitney CEO and President Marc Lautenbach said on the company’s Nov. 3 earnings call. “We are not immune to these supplychain constraints more as it relates to our e-commerce client supply levels and, to a degree, our SendTech products.”
While acknowledging the supply-chain uncertainty, Lautenbach said he was encouraged by how the company had responded. This week, Pitney reported revenues of $875 million for the third quarter — down 2 percent from a year ago, but up 11 percent from the third quarter in 2019.
“We're looking at pricing to help offset some of the higher costs, particularly as it relates to transportation and labor,” Lautenbach said. “For example, within ecommerce, we have put in place a surcharge for this peak season and recently announced our annual general rate increase effective for 2022.”
GXO, XPO and Pitney Bowes also have to consider pandemic-related labor regulations. Among them are new federal rules requiring those who work at companies with more than 100 employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4 or undergo weekly tests. On Saturday, however, a federal appeals court temporarily halted the mandate.
In response to an investment analyst’s question on the company’s quarterly earnings call, XPO CEO and Chairman Bradley Jacobs said, “everyone should get vaccinated. I think the evidence is very clear that people who are vaccinated get infected less. And when they do get infected less, they get hospitalized less than non-vaccinated people.”
He qualified that endorsement, however, with concerns about requiring vaccinations.
“There's a lot of resistance from a lot of people to get vaccinated. And one, the government needs to take into consideration the practical ramifications of policy,” he added. “And in the trucking industry, in particular, there’s probably a little bit higher percentage of people who are anti-vaxxers, so to speak. And if that policy went in right away, it probably would not, short-term at least, have a good effect. You'd see a lot of labor leave the market.”
XPO officials were not immediately available to comment in response to an inquiry from Hearst Connecticut Media about how the company planned to respond to the requirements for employers of more than 100.