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The closure of U.S. West Coast ports by a lockout of longshoremen by terminal operators idled thousands of port truckers, piled up shipborne cargoes that will take weeks to clear and began rapidly affecting businesses throughout the nation.

SAN FRANCISCO — Transportation companies and freight shippers may face a wave of problems as ripple effects spread from the labor dispute between longshoremen and West Coast port operators, logistics and trucking professionals said.

The U.S. economy shed 43,000 jobs during September, but the unemployment rate fell to 5.6% from 5.7% on an upward revision in the August jobs data, the Department of Labor reported Friday. br clear = all>

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The impact of the closure of 29 ports on the West Coast continues to grow as negotiations made little progress Thursday.

Another day passed without a resolution to the Pacific Maritime Association's lockout of dockworkers and some factories said they were beginning to feel the pinch.

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The number of orders placed with U.S. factories fell in August for the second time in three months, the Commerce Department said Thursday, putting a gloomy top on a series of mixed economic signals from several different reports on recent economic trends.

William J. Canary, president of the American Trucking Associations, sent a letter to President Bush Wednesday seeking his intervention into the potentially crippling West Coast port lockout, the American Trucking Associations said.