August 23, 2018
Low unemployment and strong economic growth are forcing operators in the booming warehouse sector to lure much-needed workers from other industries. Development of most new warehouses is contingent on finding increasingly scarce labor, and workers from other industries are the primary source. About 730,000 workers nationally switched to the transportation/warehousing (T/W) sector from a different industry in 2015, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This represented a 66% increase from 2011, making warehousing the fastest-growing sector for workers switching industries in the U.S. Half of all workers switching to T/W jobs were formerly employed by service providers performing routine support activities¹ or within the retail and wholesale trade. Texas and California saw the most workers switching to T/W jobs from other industries in 2015.
