New York Port Hit With Rare Vessel Congestion Amid COVID-Induced Labor Shortage

President Biden’s cunning plan to clear congestion from the nation’s top ports failed at the end of 2021 and continues to underwhelm in the new year.

New data from Bloomberg shows a rare bottleneck has materialized at the New York area’s port terminals, the busiest on the East Coast, due to labor shortage fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have seen a spike in the number of labor going out into quarantine,” Port Authority Director Sam Ruda said. The average wait time for a container ship is about 4.75 days in the final week of 2021, compared with an average of 1.6 days for the entire year.

The developing backlog is a labor issue as port workers stay home due to the rapid spread of the Omicron virus.

Running at full capacity since the virus pandemic began in early 2020, the port handled 27% more cargo in November 2021 than it did in November 2019. So any disruption to labor has made it susceptible to a backlog.- READ MORE