Used plastic pallets in Tampa

Tampa's warehousing belt

Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater spans 4 counties (Pinellas, Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco). In the counties where the Bureau of Labor Statistics can publish, private employers had 13,205 warehousing and storage jobs in 2025, 1.0% of local private jobs.

Tampa against Florida

The metro's disclosed-county total set beside the state's whole count, so the two can be read together.

Where a Tampa lot lands: the busy ZIPs

Census ZIP Code Business Patterns for 2023 list 5 ZIPs here with the most warehousing establishments, 46 between them. 33619 (Tampa) leads with 16, 35% of the listed total.

• 33619 Tampa: 16 warehousing establishments, 1.3 times 33610.
• 33610 Tampa: 12 warehousing establishments, 75% of the count in 33619.
• 33605 Tampa: 7 warehousing establishments, 44% of the count in 33619.
• 33634 Tampa: 6 warehousing establishments, 38% of the count in 33619.
• 33773 Largo: 5 warehousing establishments, 31% of the count in 33619.

What the ratios say

Hidden counties mean Tampa's figure of 13,205 is the disclosed part of its warehousing work, not a ceiling.

• Tampa ranks 32nd of the 60 metros in the data by disclosed warehousing jobs, with 13,205 against a median of 13,652.
• Spread across 4 counties, that is 3,301 warehousing jobs per county on average.
• Hillsborough County holds 93% of the metro's jobs and Pinellas County 7.5%; the gap between them is 11,227 jobs.
• 33619 has 16 warehousing establishments, 3.2 times as many as 33773 (5) at the other end of the list.
• Florida has 105,401 warehousing jobs in all, so the disclosed counties of Tampa are 13% of the state.
• Warehousing is 1.0% of private jobs in these counties; where it is higher than average, pallets are a daily cost and sellers of surplus are common.
• The metros closest in size are Cleveland (13,652, 447 above) and Reno (12,269, 936 below).
• The top three ZIPs, 33619, 33610, 33605, hold 35 of the 46 establishments in the ZIP list, or 76%.
• The ZIP list spans 2 towns, led by Tampa (41) and Largo (5).
• The ZIP list averages 9.2 warehousing establishments per ZIP across 5 ZIPs, and the quietest, 33773 Largo, has 5.
• Of the 4 counties in the metro, the BLS discloses 2 for warehousing, which together account for 13,205 of the 13,205 jobs counted.
• Reaching the median metro would take 1.0 times the disclosed warehousing jobs Tampa has now.
• For every warehousing job in these counties there are about 99 other private jobs, so pallet-using work is spread thinly across 4 counties.

Where Tampa ranks

Tampa and the 31 metros above it hold 88% of the 1,116,650 warehousing jobs across the 60 metros in the data. The largest, Inland Empire, counts 118,368.

The roads a lot travels in Tampa

No Interstate corridor in our data lists Tampa, so the county and ZIP figures carry this page.

The ladder around Tampa

Metros ranked by disclosed warehousing jobs: Tampa with the two above it and the two below.

Local industries that use pallets

Against the national share of employment, warehousing and storage is the most concentrated pallet-using line in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, at 0.7x. Warehouses with automated storage need a consistent size for conveyors and a rack rating they can read.

• Warehousing and storage: 13,205 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.7% of the 1,901,976 across the US, or 1.00 for every warehousing job here.
• Grocery and related product wholesale: 7,977 jobs in the disclosed counties, 1.0% of the 829,364 across the US, or 0.60 for every warehousing job here.

Planning around the seasons

• Cold months bring brittle resin, so handle gently and avoid sharp drops.
• Warm months soften decks, so shorten stacks and keep loads in shade.
• Harvest, holiday and promotion peaks use pallets faster, so order earlier.
• Wet seasons add weight in the ribs, so allow a drying day before indoor use.
• Plan returns and exports for the weeks when dock space is free.

A kit for the walk-around

• A steel tape that reads both inches and millimetres.
• A torch for the underside, where hairline cracks hide in shadow.
• A straight edge about a metre long to test decks for bow and dishing.
• Gloves, because burrs and weld beads cut skin.
• A phone, a pen and a numbered sheet so every pallet checked gets a mark.

What to send for a Tampa lot

• Footprint: 48 x 40 in, one maker
• Grade: used and clean with a stated rating
• Dock ZIP, for example 33619 or 33610
• Quantity band

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