When it comes to the supply chain, one thing is for certain, the warehousing industry isn’t going anywhere. It’s constantly changing and growing with the times, but it has a huge impact on the economy. Plus, the warehousing industry has a lot of opportunity for upward mobility. Warehouses have many entry-level jobs where you can gain on-the-job experience that qualifies you for management positions later.
Some Surprising Insights
From stock that could stretch halfway around the world to a building so big that it actually has its own weather system, we take a look at some of the little known and surprising facts about the warehousing industry around the globe:
- About 9% of the current jobs in America are in the warehousing industry and manufacturing industry.
- The massive 348,000 sq. foot NASA vehicle assembly building is so big, it actually has its own weather, even producing its rain clouds.
- Over the next 10 years, there will be too many jobs to fill in the manufacturing field. Of the roughly 3.5 million new jobs created in the space, nearly 2 million will go unfilled.
- The manufacturing and warehousing world is a great space for non-college grads. Last year, the income of workers without college degrees was nearly 11% higher than workers in other industries without college degrees.
- Over the last 25 years, there has been a 400% spike in the amount of exported goods manufactured in the United States.
- The biggest wine warehouse in Europe is ‘Constellation Europe’ houses 57 million bottles of wine. Stretched end to end, all of its wine bottles would be over 9,000 miles long. That is like driving from New York to Los Angeles three times and then some, OR from England to Australia!
- More than 700 Madison Square Gardens or 10,000 Olympic-size pools could fit into Amazon’s biggest warehouses.
- In 2018, the average-sized distribution center in the United States was 672,080 sq. feet.
- The manufacturing and warehouse industry is broad. In the United States, there are currently 6,215,000 people with titles that fall under the hand laborers and material movers category (bls.gov, 2020).
- The Boeing Everett factory is not only the largest warehouse but the largest building in the world coming in at 4.3 million square feet.
