Used plastic pallets in Illinois

Where Illinois's pallet work sits

Warehousing and storage in Illinois employed 80,071 people at 864 sites in 2025, an average of 92.7 per site, by the BLS count of private employers.

• Will County: 25,357 warehousing jobs, 32% of Illinois and 1.3% of the country, 1.6 times Cook County.
• Cook County: 16,057 warehousing jobs, 20% of Illinois and 0.84% of the country, 63% of the size of Will County.
• DuPage County: 8,368 warehousing jobs, 10% of Illinois and 0.44% of the country, 33% of the size of Will County.

Illinois against the country

Each line is Illinois's private-sector figure beside the national total, with the share it makes up and, where the data allows, its rank among the fifty states.

What the ratios say

The BLS withholds counties where a figure would identify one employer, which means the 3 counties shown for Illinois understate what the state holds.

• The three largest warehousing counties hold 62% of Illinois's jobs in the line.
• Size of site: 92.7 jobs in the typical Illinois warehouse, more than the 81.5 found across the country (14 percent more).
• Food manufacturing employs 1.23 people for every warehousing job in Illinois; across the US the ratio is 0.93.
• Illinois holds 5.5% of the nation's food manufacturing jobs and 4.2% of its warehousing jobs, so food is the heavier of the two lines here.
• Pharmaceutical manufacturing adds 24,257 jobs, 6.9% of the US total, enough to make sanitisable pallets a real part of local demand.
• Motor vehicle assembly accounts for 12,606 jobs in Illinois, 4.4% of the US total, with another 21,206 in parts.
• Refrigerated space works out at 2,373 cubic feet for every warehousing job, against 2,098 nationally.
• The metro below accounts for 74% of the state's warehousing jobs, counting disclosed counties only.
• Will County's 25,357 warehousing jobs are more than the whole state total of 27 other states, the largest being Connecticut at 25,127.
• North Carolina runs warehouses of nearly the same size, at 92.5 jobs per establishment against 92.7 here.
• For food manufacturing, Texas is the closest match at 112,088 jobs, 13,788 above Illinois's 98,300.
• The smallest county the BLS shows for Illinois is DuPage County with 8,368 jobs; the largest has 3.0 times as many.
• If warehousing jobs were split evenly across 50 states, each would hold 2.0% of the total; Illinois holds 4.21%, which is 2.10 times an even share.
• Georgia sits above Illinois with 4,659 more warehousing jobs, and New Jersey sits below with 3,919 fewer.

Where Illinois ranks

Illinois and the 6 states above it hold 48% of the country's 1,901,976 warehousing jobs between them. The median state has 23,211, so Illinois is 56,861 jobs above it; California, the largest, has 236,923, or 3 times as many.

Industries that use pallets in Illinois

The line that stands out in Illinois is pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing, 1.8 times as concentrated as it is across the US. Pharma shippers want pallets they can sanitise, with papers on resin and colour; some prefer polypropylene because it takes sterilisation.

• Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing: 24,257 jobs in Illinois, 6.9% of the 350,886 across the US, or 0.30 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Grocery and related product wholesale: 48,629 jobs in Illinois, 5.9% of the 829,364 across the US, or 0.61 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Refrigerated warehousing: 4,095 jobs in Illinois, 5.6% of the 73,136 across the US, or 0.05 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Food manufacturing: 98,300 jobs in Illinois, 5.5% of the 1,775,008 across the US, or 1.23 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Chemical manufacturing: 48,745 jobs in Illinois, 5.5% of the 892,426 across the US, or 0.61 for every warehousing job in the state.

The ladder around Illinois

At 7th of 50 states by warehousing jobs, Illinois has these neighbours in the ranking, two above and two below.

Metros we list in Illinois

One metro in Illinois has a page with ZIPs, counties and corridors.

Labelling stacks

• Put a card on each stack with footprint, grade and the date it was sorted.
• Use one colour of tape for repaired pallets and another for held ones.
• Keep labels at fork-truck eye level, not on the lowest pallet.
• Update the card when a pallet is removed, so the count stays true.
• Retire old cards instead of writing over them.

Asking for a lot in Illinois

USDA counted 190 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Illinois on 1 October 2025, 8th among the states; ask the maker how a pallet behaves frozen.

• Ask for like new in 48 x 40 in or a square footprint
• Write the Illinois ZIP where the lot will land
• Say how many pallet-loads, or whether you need a truck

Other states

• Alaska
• Colorado
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Kansas
• Nevada
• North Dakota
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• South Dakota
• Vermont
• Wisconsin

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