Used plastic pallets in Alabama

What the jobs data shows for Alabama

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts private employers in Alabama at 21,880 warehousing and storage jobs across 306 establishments in 2025, about 71.5 jobs per establishment.

• Jefferson County: 6,920 warehousing jobs, 32% of Alabama and 0.36% of the country, 2.6 times Mobile County.
• Mobile County: 2,677 warehousing jobs, 12% of Alabama and 0.14% of the country, 39% of the size of Jefferson County.
• Montgomery County: 1,955 warehousing jobs, 8.9% of Alabama and 0.10% of the country, 28% of the size of Jefferson County.

Alabama against the country

Alabama's figures sit on the left and the national totals beside them, so each share and rank shows how much of the country's pallet work lands here.

What the ratios say

Disclosure rules in the BLS data hide small counties, so the county totals for Alabama are a floor and not the whole of its 21,880 jobs.

• The three largest warehousing counties hold 53% of Alabama's jobs in the line.
• The average warehouse in Alabama employs 71.5 people where the national average is 81.5, a gap of 12 percent below it.
• Food manufacturing employs 1.54 people for every warehousing job in Alabama; across the US the ratio is 0.93.
• Alabama holds 1.9% of the nation's food manufacturing jobs and 1.2% of its warehousing jobs, so food is the heavier of the two lines here.
• Pharmaceutical manufacturing adds 1,535 jobs, 0.44% of the US total.
• Motor vehicle assembly accounts for 22,311 jobs in Alabama, 7.7% of the US total, with another 29,218 in parts.
• Refrigerated space works out at 1,965 cubic feet for every warehousing job, against 2,098 nationally.
• Jefferson County's 6,920 warehousing jobs are more than the whole state total of 13 other states, the largest being New Mexico at 5,725.
• Arkansas runs warehouses of nearly the same size, at 71.7 jobs per establishment against 71.5 here.
• For food manufacturing, Virginia is the closest match at 32,684 jobs, 1,044 below Alabama's 33,728.
• The smallest county the BLS shows for Alabama is Montgomery County with 1,955 jobs; the largest has 3.5 times as many.
• If warehousing jobs were split evenly across 50 states, each would hold 2.0% of the total; Alabama holds 1.15%, which is 0.57 times an even share.
• Colorado sits above Alabama with 2,661 more warehousing jobs, and Kansas sits below with 722 fewer.

Where Alabama ranks

Alabama and the 25 states above it hold 89% of the country's 1,901,976 warehousing jobs between them. The median state has 23,211, so Alabama is 1,330 jobs below it; California, the largest, has 236,923, or 11 times as many.

The pallet-using lines in Alabama

By location quotient Alabama leans hardest on motor vehicle manufacturing (6.0x the national share). Automotive plants reuse pallets in a loop and load them heavily, so ask for static and dynamic ratings and for one maker.

• Motor vehicle manufacturing: 22,311 jobs in Alabama, 7.7% of the 288,633 across the US, or 1.02 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Motor vehicle parts manufacturing: 29,218 jobs in Alabama, 5.6% of the 521,212 across the US, or 1.34 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Meat and poultry processing: 24,973 jobs in Alabama, 4.5% of the 556,647 across the US, or 1.14 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Plastics product manufacturing: 14,217 jobs in Alabama, 2.5% of the 575,006 across the US, or 0.65 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Food manufacturing: 33,728 jobs in Alabama, 1.9% of the 1,775,008 across the US, or 1.54 for every warehousing job in the state.

The ladder around Alabama

States are ranked by warehousing and storage jobs. Alabama is 26th of 50; the table shows the two states above it and the two below.

Alabama has no metro page

Alabama has no page for a single metro, since none of the sixty in the data lies inside it. Requests from anywhere in the state are read as they come, and the reply says how a lot would travel.

When something looks wrong

• Stop unloading and photograph the fault before anything moves.
• Count how many pallets show the same fault, to see if it is a lot problem or a one-off.
• Tell the desk or the seller in writing the same day, with the photographs attached.
• Hold the affected stacks apart until you hear back.
• Keep one sample pallet unused, so the maker or an inspector can examine it.

Asking for a lot in Alabama

USDA counted 43 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Alabama on 1 October 2025, 26th among the states; ask the maker how a pallet behaves frozen.

• Ask for a uniform closed-loop lot in 48 x 45 in to match heavy-duty bulk containers
• Write the Alabama ZIP where the lot will land
• Say how many pallet-loads, or whether you need a truck

Other states

• Alaska
• California
• Idaho
• Maine
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• South Carolina
• Texas
• Vermont
• Virginia
• West Virginia

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