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Teamsters President James Hoffa said he is optimistic about reaching a contract agreement for the 238,000 union members at UPS Inc., Bloomberg reported.

The economy’s service sector growth rate grew at the fastest pace in more than a year in June, the Institute for Supply Management said.

U.S. employers added 132,000 jobs in June while the unemployment rate remained at 4.5%, the Labor Department reported.

Wholesale sales rose faster than inventories rose in May, jumping 1.5%, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

Order a T-shirt from Jockey online or send your Toshiba laptop for repair, and your new shirt probably will arrive the next day, your repaired computer within the week. Both likely will come from Worldport, UPS Inc.’s 4 million-square-foot international air hub in Louisville, Ky.

The decline in truck tonnage accelerated from April to May, dropping 3.6% compared with last May — the largest year-over-year fall-off since January.

Shipments of new trailers to dealers and fleets fell 11.8% during the first five months of 2007, due in large part to the weaker economy, and will fall further this year, according to trailer manufacturers and analysts.

 A key congressional Democrat said dire pronouncements about the state of the Highway Trust Fund are driven by the Bush administration’s antipathy to a fuel-tax increase and its affinity for tolls and privatization.

Diesel fuel taxes in Connecticut increased 11 cents a gallon to 37 cents from 26 cents on July 1.