Used plastic pallets in Baltimore

Baltimore by county

Count the jobs the BLS can disclose in Baltimore-Columbia-Towson and you reach 6,377 in warehousing and storage for 2025, 0.6% of the metro's private work. The area covers 7 counties: Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard, Queen Anne's....

Baltimore against Maryland

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

ZIPs with the most warehouses

Census ZIP Code Business Patterns for 2023 list 5 ZIPs here with the most warehousing establishments, 64 between them. 20794 (Jessup) leads with 18, 28% of the listed total.

• 20794 Jessup: 18 warehousing establishments, 1.2 times 21224.
• 21224 Baltimore: 15 warehousing establishments, 83% of the count in 20794.
• 21226 Curtis Bay: 13 warehousing establishments, 72% of the count in 20794.
• 21230 Baltimore: 9 warehousing establishments, 50% of the count in 20794.
• 21075 Elkridge: 9 warehousing establishments, 50% of the count in 20794.

What the ratios say

The BLS leaves out counties where one employer would show through, so the 6,377 jobs counted for Baltimore may understate the metro.

• Baltimore ranks 43rd of the 60 metros in the data by disclosed warehousing jobs, with 6,377 against a median of 13,652.
• Spread across 7 counties, that is 911 warehousing jobs per county on average.
• Harford County holds 54% of the metro's jobs and Howard County 26%; the gap between them is 1,784 jobs.
• 20794 has 18 warehousing establishments, 2.0 times as many as 21075 (9) at the other end of the list.
• Maryland has 29,966 warehousing jobs in all, so the disclosed counties of Baltimore are 21% of the state.
• Warehousing is 0.6% of private jobs in these counties; where it is higher than average, pallets are a daily cost and sellers of surplus are common.
• One Interstate in the data serves the metro, and it carries 127,866 warehousing jobs along the route.
• The metros closest in size are Savannah (6,384, 7 above) and Austin (5,657, 720 below).
• The top three ZIPs, 20794, 21224, 21226, hold 46 of the 64 establishments in the ZIP list, or 72%.
• The ZIP list spans 4 towns, led by Baltimore (24) and Jessup (18).
• The ZIP list averages 12.8 warehousing establishments per ZIP across 5 ZIPs, and the quietest, 21075 Elkridge, has 9.
• Of the 7 counties in the metro, the BLS discloses 3 for warehousing, which together account for 6,377 of the 6,377 jobs counted.
• Reaching the median metro would take 2.1 times the disclosed warehousing jobs Baltimore has now.
• For every warehousing job in these counties there are about 166 other private jobs, so pallet-using work is spread thinly across 7 counties.

Where Baltimore ranks

Baltimore and the 42 metros above it hold 96% of the 1,116,650 warehousing jobs across the 60 metros in the data. The largest, Inland Empire, counts 118,368.

Corridors through Baltimore

Interstate 95 is the Interstate in our data that serves Baltimore.

Neighbouring metros in the data

Metros that share a corridor with Baltimore, and the other metros in Maryland, with their disclosed warehousing jobs.

The ladder around Baltimore

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

Baltimore's pallet-using trades

Against the national share of employment, grocery and related product wholesale is the most concentrated pallet-using line in Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, at 1.4x. Grocery wholesale runs on the 48 x 40 GMA footprint through racks, trailers and conveyors.

• Grocery and related product wholesale: 10,051 jobs in the disclosed counties, 1.2% of the 829,364 across the US, or 1.58 for every warehousing job here.
• Food manufacturing: 11,590 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.7% of the 1,775,008 across the US, or 1.82 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.

Requesting a lot for Baltimore

• Footprint: 48 x 40 in
• Grade: used and clean
• Dock ZIP, for example 20794 or 21224
• Quantity band

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