Warehouse Worker: The New “It” Job

All be it competing “Help Wanted, Great Pay” signs cluttering roadways to rampant recruiting efforts (including generous ad budgets) on popular job placement sites, the demand for warehouse workers continues to rise.

Over the past two years, the unprecedented rise in fast and minimal-to-contactless delivery has forced brands to restructure their business models. Consumers have come to rely on and expect fast delivery, which taxes all aspects of warehouse output. This led to a fast and furious warehouse labor shortage with minimal to no heads up.

Meeting consumer demand  

Warehouse work has generally kept a low profile in the supply chain flow until the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Then demand for e-commerce and quick service exploded. That’s when the warehouse worker was deemed essential and a precious commodity.

These challenges ignited a burst in wage increases and career growth and development opportunities.

Growing continues

The warehouse worker pool increased 35.5% over the past two years and more than doubled over the past ten years (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

“In less than one year, we’ve doubled our warehouse leadership roles. This does not include the additional supervisory roles currently in development,” says Bob Antes, TradeTrans president and founder.

The TradeTrans warehouse staff grew over 50% in less than a year and projects to increase an additional 10-15% over the next quarter.   This growth translates to warehouse space as well. TradeTrans is now operating a second facility that yields over twice the capacity and now partners with a third-party warehousing service.

An excellent place to start or re-start

Entry-level warehouse jobs offer the opportunity to gain experience and potentially work your way up into other positions within the organization. Learning the various skills of warehouse operations can be transferable to different types of jobs. And gaining insight into how the warehouse operates can help individuals excel in management, logistics, inventory control and even quality assurance positions.

If you’re independent and self-motivated, high-energy and able to meet the physical demands of warehouse work, you may be well-suited to this job. Then who knows where your career will take you.

Whether you’re looking for a job or considering a new career, there are many reasons warehouse work could be a rewarding opportunity move for you. So why not give it a try?