The ports of Los Angeles and the adjacent Port of Long Beach will see traffic plummet in coming weeks.

Stung by supply chain breakdowns and worried about labor unrest, many shippers have rerouted goods to the Gulf of Mexico and East Coast.

Executive Director Gene Seroka says traffic has slowed in part because of labor talks between dockworkers and their employers.

A combination of slowing demand and better management means ports aren’t as backed up as they used to be.

There are fewer than 10 ships waiting for a berth. “There still are issues, but it’s much better,” a Marine Exchange executive says.

“What we’ve seen is consistent cargo flow,” says Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles.

“We can use some fancy math to predict how long the line will get,” Keely Croxton of Ohio State says, then apply it to related problems.

Retailers and manufacturers are anxious about holiday shopping as they monitor supplies on delayed cargo ships.

It will help, but there are other jobs beyond the port that need to ramp up too.

Hundreds of thousands of freight containers wait to be offloaded at ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.