Used plastic pallets in Kansas

What the jobs data shows for Kansas

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts private employers in Kansas at 21,158 warehousing and storage jobs across 293 establishments in 2025, about 72.2 jobs per establishment.

• Johnson County: 6,642 warehousing jobs, 31% of Kansas and 0.35% of the country, 1.0 times Wyandotte County.
• Wyandotte County: 6,378 warehousing jobs, 30% of Kansas and 0.34% of the country, 96% of the size of Johnson County.
• Shawnee County: 2,074 warehousing jobs, 9.8% of Kansas and 0.11% of the country, 31% of the size of Johnson County.

Kansas against the country

Kansas'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 Kansas are a floor and not the whole of its 21,158 jobs.

• The three largest warehousing counties hold 71% of Kansas's jobs in the line.
• The average warehouse in Kansas employs 72.2 people where the national average is 81.5, a gap of 11 percent below it.
• Food manufacturing employs 1.79 people for every warehousing job in Kansas; across the US the ratio is 0.93.
• Kansas holds 2.1% of the nation's food manufacturing jobs and 1.1% of its warehousing jobs, so food is the heavier of the two lines here.
• Pharmaceutical manufacturing adds 4,682 jobs, 1.3% of the US total.
• Refrigerated space works out at 2,174 cubic feet for every warehousing job, against 2,098 nationally.
• Johnson County's 6,642 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 72.2 here.
• For food manufacturing, Florida is the closest match at 39,390 jobs, 1,618 above Kansas's 37,772.
• The smallest county the BLS shows for Kansas is Shawnee County with 2,074 jobs; the largest has 3.2 times as many.
• If warehousing jobs were split evenly across 50 states, each would hold 2.0% of the total; Kansas holds 1.11%, which is 0.56 times an even share.
• Alabama sits above Kansas with 722 more warehousing jobs, and Massachusetts sits below with 463 fewer.

Where Kansas ranks

Kansas and the 26 states above it hold 90% of the country's 1,901,976 warehousing jobs between them. The median state has 23,211, so Kansas is 2,052 jobs below it; California, the largest, has 236,923, or 11 times as many.

The pallet-using lines in Kansas

By location quotient Kansas leans hardest on meat and poultry processing (4.0x the national share). Wash-down plants need clean, crack-free decks. Ask whether any pallet has been repaired, since a weld bead holds residue.

• Meat and poultry processing: 19,716 jobs in Kansas, 3.5% of the 556,647 across the US, or 0.93 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Food manufacturing: 37,772 jobs in Kansas, 2.1% of the 1,775,008 across the US, or 1.79 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing: 4,682 jobs in Kansas, 1.3% of the 350,886 across the US, or 0.22 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Plastics product manufacturing: 7,339 jobs in Kansas, 1.3% of the 575,006 across the US, or 0.35 for every warehousing job in the state.

The ladder around Kansas

States are ranked by warehousing and storage jobs. Kansas is 27th of 50; the table shows the two states above it and the two below.

Kansas has no metro page

Kansas 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.

Comparing two lots fairly

• Use the same footprint for both, measured in the same units.
• Compare grade by wear, not by the seller's letter.
• Count makers present in each, since fewer makers means a more uniform lot.
• Compare the share of repaired pieces, and where the repairs sit.
• Set freight, timing and handling beside the wear, rather than in place of it.

Questions to put to any seller

• Where did these pallets work, and what did they carry?
• How were they sorted, and who walked the lot?
• Are any welded, riveted or fitted with replacement parts?
• Can the maker's plate be photographed on several pallets?
• Will the description be sent in writing before payment is discussed?

Asking for a lot in Kansas

USDA counted 46 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Kansas on 1 October 2025, 25th among the states; ask the maker how a pallet behaves frozen.

• Start with the footprint: 48 x 40 in
• Then the grade: like new or used and clean
• Give the receiving ZIP in Kansas
• Name a quantity band, a few pallet-loads up to a truck

Other states

• California
• Iowa
• Montana
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Virginia

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