Tight Labor Market; At Record Levels -- WSJ -- February 12, 2019

Link here.

7.34 million unfilled jobs across the US.

Job openings push further into record territory at end of 2018. The number of available jobs exceeds unemployed Americans by one million at the end of 2018.

The article has garnered only two comments. That speaks volumes.

From the linked article:

There were a seasonally adjusted 7.34 million unfilled jobs on the last business day of December.

That was up from a revised 7.17 million at the end November, and surpassed August’s then-record of 7.29 million openings.

The increased openings late last year was followed by robust hiring in January, separate Labor Department data showed earlier this month.

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Also At Record Levels: Canadian CBR

Article at Minneapolis Star-Tribune here. From the article:

Oil imports by rail from Canada have hit a historic high, meaning more oil trains are rolling across Minnesota and raising the alert level of local emergency managers.

Rail shipments from Canada to the United States more than doubled during 2018 as Canadian oil production outstripped the capability of pipelines to ship the stuff, including the six Enbridge-owned lines crossing northern Minnesota.

Oil train traffic through Minnesota from North Dakota was also up noticeably in 2018, though nowhere near peak levels of 2014. The North Dakota rail uptick is largely rooted in oil price shifts.

Canada’s two big railroads, the Canadian National (CN) and the Canadian Pacific (CP), have major routes in the state, the former running through the Twin Ports, the latter through the Twin Cities. The BNSF Railway also moves some Canadian crude in Minnesota.

BNSF said it’s seen a “moderate” increase in Canadian oil shipments. Canadian Pacific declined to release any oil train details. Canadian National said its total oil shipments jumped 77 percent from 2018’s third quarter to the fourth quarter, though it didn’t disclose more specific data.

Over the last four months of 2018, 299 oil trains on the Canadian National’s tracks crossed from Ontario at Ranier, Minn., up from 121 during the same time a year ago.

Oil trains typically have 100 tank cars, each carrying around 30,000 gallons.

The last major CBR accident, Casselton, ND, resulted in a fireball and no injuries, occurred over five years ago. 

Prior to that, a tragic CBR incident occurred in Canada, 

High-profile accidents thrust oil trains into the spotlight a few years ago, the biggest being a fiery 2013 disaster in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people. A year later, a BNSF oil train crashed and burned near Casselton, N.D., about 20 miles west of Fargo. Over 1,400 people were evacuated, but there were no injuries.

 I could be wrong but I think there is a solution to all that concern about ever-increasing CBR.

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