Another big jump in port traffic

November imports at the Port of Long Beach were up 20.2 percent from a year earlier, while exports were up 24.8 percent. Activity was down from October, which is normally around the peak of the holiday shipping season (no figures yet from the Port of Los Angeles). After a dismal 2009, this is shaping up to be a turnaround year at both ports - good news not only because of what it says about the pickup in consumer spending, but because increased port traffic means increased local hiring. Traffic was not uniformly positive - on exports, 2010 started strong, ebbed for a while because of a slowdown in the global economy, and seems to be finishing on a high note.