Rick Chen ‘24
The global supply chain, caused by the onset of COVID-19, continues to have difficulties with shipping, trucking, and warehousing. The pandemic led to a worker shortage and closing of factories. These issues are detrimental to the US economy, one of the largest manufacturing countries in the world, and have resulted in delays in delivering goods to US consumers, including the students and faculty at EA.
According to CNBC, at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, 20.5 million people in the US quit their jobs. In February of 2021, 10.1 million people were unemployed. With this decrease in the workforce, businesses are struggling to continue work without raising their wages too high. “Now Hiring” signs are taped on windows all across America, highlighting a struggling economy. With the holiday boom in consumerism looming, businesses are now raising wages and offering exclusive deals so they can hire more workers and meet production demand.
Photo Courtesy of Ashley Kennedy ’22
Shortages in truck drivers and port workers have also devastated the global supply chain as stated in The New York Times. With a lack of high speed rails and efficient trains that other technologically advanced countries have, Americans depend on truckers to transport goods from ports to stores and warehouses. Without the people who are integral to transportation, goods cannot be delivered to their intended destinations on time.
The lack of workers at major ports, like the port of Los Angeles, has caused major delays in docking schedules. Instead of unloading thousands of containers from ships each day, ports have been forced to slow down their unloading pace, causing ships to wait outside the ports for multiple days.
Many countries involved in sea commerce, such as China, India, and Brazil, were significantly affected by the global supply chain crisis. However, the United Kingdom and United States have been the main countries affected by the labor and transportation shortage, as their economy relies heavily on commerce.
Back up in ports has caused ship schedules to be drastically changed and delayed. This uncertainty within the supply chain has caused the world’s economy to be brought to a standstill, with Chinese factories unable to ship goods ordered by consumers, and ports in major countries unable to keep up with the high demands set by impatient customers.
The supply chain issues have had direct effects on the EA community. In a previous Scholium article, Mark Notaro, Director of Operations, discusses the building of the security post at the entrance to the school, “The security post is supposed to be done at the beginning of December, but there have been some delays in getting materials,” referring to the transportation problems.
Students have also had issues with receiving items that they have ordered. Franny Gallagher ‘23 says, “I ordered my halloween costume a couple weeks ago, and it still hasn’t come in yet. There were also a bunch of homecoming dresses that I really liked and wanted to order, but when I looked at the shipping, I realized I couldn’t and I had to go with other options.” Amelia Wondrash ‘23 adds, “My grandpa texted my sisters and I, asking for our Christmas lists, and at first, we were really confused because it wasn’t even Halloween yet. He told us that things were getting backordered and very delayed, and there were shortages of goods.”