Used plastic pallets in Louisiana

Where Louisiana's pallet work sits

Warehousing and storage in Louisiana employed 15,312 people at 326 sites in 2025, an average of 47.0 per site, by the BLS count of private employers.

• East Baton Rouge County: 3,948 warehousing jobs, 26% of Louisiana and 0.21% of the country, 1.5 times Caddo County.
• Caddo County: 2,610 warehousing jobs, 17% of Louisiana and 0.14% of the country, 66% of the size of East Baton Rouge County.
• Tangipahoa County: 1,330 warehousing jobs, 8.7% of Louisiana and 0.07% of the country, 34% of the size of East Baton Rouge County.

Louisiana against the country

Each line is Louisiana'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 Louisiana understate what the state holds.

• The three largest warehousing counties hold 52% of Louisiana's jobs in the line.
• Size of site: 47.0 jobs in the typical Louisiana warehouse, fewer than the 81.5 found across the country (42 percent fewer).
• Food manufacturing employs 1.11 people for every warehousing job in Louisiana; across the US the ratio is 0.93.
• Louisiana holds 0.96% of the nation's food manufacturing jobs and 0.81% of its warehousing jobs, so food is the heavier of the two lines here.
• Pharmaceutical manufacturing adds 748 jobs, 0.21% of the US total.
• Refrigerated space works out at 522 cubic feet for every warehousing job, against 2,098 nationally.
• The metro below accounts for 14% of the state's warehousing jobs, counting disclosed counties only.
• East Baton Rouge County's 3,948 warehousing jobs are more than the whole state total of 11 other states, the largest being Maine at 3,774.
• Utah runs warehouses of nearly the same size, at 47.2 jobs per establishment against 47.0 here.
• For food manufacturing, South Carolina is the closest match at 17,789 jobs, 819 above Louisiana's 16,970.
• The smallest county the BLS shows for Louisiana is Tangipahoa County with 1,330 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; Louisiana holds 0.81%, which is 0.41 times an even share.
• Arkansas sits above Louisiana with 312 more warehousing jobs, and Utah sits below with 1,629 fewer.

Where Louisiana ranks

Louisiana and the 33 states above it hold 96% of the country's 1,901,976 warehousing jobs between them. The median state has 23,211, so Louisiana is 7,898 jobs below it; California, the largest, has 236,923, or 15 times as many.

Industries that use pallets in Louisiana

The line that stands out in Louisiana is chemical manufacturing, 2.7 times as concentrated as it is across the US. Drums and bags drive the footprint here: four 55-gallon drums sit on a 48 x 48 without overhang, and 45 x 45 is the CP9 chemical standard.

• Chemical manufacturing: 28,918 jobs in Louisiana, 3.2% of the 892,426 across the US, or 1.89 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Food manufacturing: 16,970 jobs in Louisiana, 0.96% of the 1,775,008 across the US, or 1.11 for every warehousing job in the state.

The ladder around Louisiana

At 34th of 50 states by warehousing jobs, Louisiana has these neighbours in the ranking, two above and two below.

Metros we list in Louisiana

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

Wear you can measure

• Deck bow: lay the straight edge across and slide a feeler between it and the deck.
• Runner flattening: compare the thickness of a worn runner with an unworn one.
• Corner loss: hold a square against the corner and note any missing plastic.
• Pocket height: measure the opening at both ends of each fork pocket.
• Weight: weigh three pallets on a platform scale and note the spread.

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.

Asking for a lot in Louisiana

USDA counted 8 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Louisiana on 1 October 2025, 33rd among the states; ask the maker how a pallet behaves frozen.

• Ask for used and clean in 48 x 48 in or 45 x 45 in
• Write the Louisiana ZIP where the lot will land
• Say how many pallet-loads, or whether you need a truck

Other states

• Alaska
• California
• Colorado
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Rhode Island
• Tennessee
• Utah

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