Logistics and international trade: the global race to the top

Railheads, marine port terminals and freight corridors. Most of us don't spend a lot of time thinking about these things, but they are vital to the Puget Sound economy and their benefits are obvious to many businesses, big and small.

A new study by the nonprofit organization Port Jobs suggests these facilities and the businesses using them could provide great job opportunities for the future — and that working people in King County will pay a price if we do not invest in improving our regional transportation and freight-mobility infrastructure to grow these jobs.

For many years, the manufacturing sector offered a pathway to the middle class for many Americans. People with limited education could find good jobs with decent pay and enough benefits so their families could prosper. Community colleges and nonprofit organizations developed programs that linked disadvantaged communities to those manufacturing jobs.

Times have changed, though, and manufacturing is on the decline in the Pacific Northwest and nationally. Yet, those same global economic forces that have led to a decrease in manufacturing jobs have also increased trade through Puget Sound ports.

Every shipping container moving through our ports creates jobs. A complex web of companies moves those containers off ships and onto trucks, transporting them to local warehouses, Eastern Washington, or to railheads for transit to places like Chicago and New York.

As a result, a new employment sector has emerged: logistics and international trade (LIT). This sector has been targeted by the Prosperity Partnership's "Regional Economic Strategy for the Central Puget Sound Region" as a key industry for our future.

Some of the top LIT jobs include truck drivers, flight attendants, cargo and freight agents, laborers and material movers, and longshore workers. The sector also includes jobs in support industries such as reservation and transportation ticket agents, travel clerks, and even bookkeepers, accounting clerks and vehicle cleaners.

But are they good jobs? Port Jobs' study found that LIT-sector jobs in King County offer many of the benefits to working people that were once provided by the manufacturing sector — jobs that are easy to enter and pay a decent wage.

The study found that LIT jobs generally require very little training. Most can be learned on the job in less than a year. What's more, LIT wages are comparable to manufacturing wages. The average mean wage for the top 50 LIT jobs in King County is $24.49 an hour compared with $24.22 for the top 50 manufacturing jobs. This is significantly higher than the average $18.82 per hour earned by all blue-collar workers in the Seattle area.

The amount of cargo moving through Puget Sound ports has grown dramatically in recent years and that growth is expected to continue. In 2002, some 65 million metric tons of freight moved through our ports, ranking us second in the nation. This number is projected to grow to 107.8 million metric tons by 2025. As the amount of cargo increases, so will LIT jobs.

Although these projections paint a rosy picture of business and job opportunities, we cannot be complacent. Most of the freight moving through Puget Sound ports is transported beyond Washington state. Businesses that find their goods sitting on trucks tied up in traffic, or stuck in line on the waterfront due to insufficient facilities, will choose to ship their cargo through other ports. The ports of Seattle and Tacoma have benefited from the effects of those exact same problems in Southern California. When shippers tired of tie-ups and looked elsewhere, they found us.

If our ports, highways and railroads become overloaded, shippers will simply move on to the next port of call. Canada is investing substantially in its ports, including major infrastructure at Prince Rupert Port. Southern California is rectifying its congestion problem through the multibillion-dollar Alameda Corridor rail-highway project. Our competitors are not taking their future for granted.

While many view the manufacturing sector as a race to the bottom — competition based on lower labor costs — the battle for the logistics and trade industry will be fought through infrastructure and efficiency. It will be based on how regions are able to strategically plan for the future. It will be a race to the top.

If working people in the Puget Sound region are to benefit from burgeoning global growth in cargo, we must do two things. First, we must invest in improving our transportation and freight-mobility infrastructure. Second, we must develop programs that link people of limited education to the good jobs the LIT sector has to offer. If we do this, our economy will grow in ways that benefit the entire region.

Paige Miller chairs the board of directors of Port Jobs, an employment and training organization focusing on the port-related economy. Bill Stafford is president of the Trade Development Alliance and a Port Jobs board member. Bob Drewel is executive director of the Puget Sound Regional Council. Mic Dinsmore is CEO of the Port of Seattle.