Used plastic pallets in Michigan

Michigan in numbers

A pallet moves wherever a warehouse does, and Michigan has 576 of them by the BLS establishment count, with 40,753 jobs between them and 70.8 per site on average.

• Wayne County: 22,255 warehousing jobs, 55% of Michigan and 1.2% of the country, 5.4 times Oakland County.
• Oakland County: 4,113 warehousing jobs, 10% of Michigan and 0.22% of the country, 18% of the size of Wayne County.
• Macomb County: 3,556 warehousing jobs, 8.7% of Michigan and 0.19% of the country, 16% of the size of Wayne County.

Michigan against the country

Read across: what Michigan has, what the whole country has, the slice Michigan takes, and where that puts it in the state ranking when a rank exists.

What the ratios say

Small counties in Michigan are hidden by BLS disclosure rules, so read the 40,753 state figure as the total and the county lines as a floor.

• The three largest warehousing counties hold 73% of Michigan's jobs in the line, and Wayne County alone holds 55%.
• At 70.8 jobs per establishment against 81.5 across the US, Michigan's warehouses run smaller than the national average by 13 percent.
• Food manufacturing employs 1.09 people for every warehousing job in Michigan; across the US the ratio is 0.93.
• Michigan holds 2.5% of the nation's food manufacturing jobs and 2.1% of its warehousing jobs, so food is the heavier of the two lines here.
• Pharmaceutical manufacturing adds 11,060 jobs, 3.2% of the US total, enough to make sanitisable pallets a real part of local demand.
• Motor vehicle assembly accounts for 44,870 jobs in Michigan, 16% of the US total, with another 111,465 in parts.
• Refrigerated space works out at 2,159 cubic feet for every warehousing job, against 2,098 nationally.
• The 2 metros below account for 81% of the state's warehousing jobs, counting disclosed counties only.
• Wayne County's 22,255 warehousing jobs are more than the whole state total of 25 other states, the largest being Alabama at 21,880.
• Alabama runs warehouses of nearly the same size, at 71.5 jobs per establishment against 70.8 here.
• For food manufacturing, Missouri is the closest match at 45,268 jobs, 864 above Michigan's 44,404.
• The smallest county the BLS shows for Michigan is Macomb County with 3,556 jobs; the largest has 6.3 times as many.
• If warehousing jobs were split evenly across 50 states, each would hold 2.0% of the total; Michigan holds 2.14%, which is 1.07 times an even share.
• Nevada sits above Michigan with 1,360 more warehousing jobs, and Kentucky sits below with 2,472 fewer.

Where Michigan ranks

Michigan and the 15 states above it hold 73% of the country's 1,901,976 warehousing jobs between them. The median state has 23,211, so Michigan is 17,543 jobs above it; California, the largest, has 236,923, or 6 times as many.

Who buys pallets in Michigan

Measured against the national share of employment, motor vehicle parts manufacturing is the most concentrated pallet-using line in Michigan, at 7.5 times the national figure. Automotive plants reuse pallets in a loop and load them heavily, so ask for static and dynamic ratings and for one maker.

• Motor vehicle parts manufacturing: 111,465 jobs in Michigan, 21% of the 521,212 across the US, or 2.74 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Motor vehicle manufacturing: 44,870 jobs in Michigan, 16% of the 288,633 across the US, or 1.10 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Plastics product manufacturing: 32,916 jobs in Michigan, 5.7% of the 575,006 across the US, or 0.81 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Refrigerated warehousing: 3,158 jobs in Michigan, 4.3% of the 73,136 across the US, or 0.08 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Fruit and vegetable preserving: 7,444 jobs in Michigan, 4.3% of the 173,844 across the US, or 0.18 for every warehousing job in the state.

The ladder around Michigan

Sorting all 50 states by warehousing jobs puts Michigan 16th. The rows around it show how close the next states are.

Metros we list in Michigan

2 metros in Michigan have a page with ZIPs, counties and corridors.

Training the dock crew

• Show new staff three pallets: one acceptable, one marginal, one rejected.
• Agree on words for faults, such as crack, gouge, bow and dish, and use them.
• Tell people to stop and ask when a pallet carries any mark they do not recognise.
• Remind drivers to enter pockets squarely, since angled entry splits the pocket wall.
• Walk the dock together once a month and compare notes.

What to put on a request from Michigan

USDA counted 88 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Michigan on 1 October 2025, 15th among the states; ask the maker how a pallet behaves frozen.

• Start with the footprint: 48 x 45 in to match heavy-duty bulk containers
• Then the grade: a uniform closed-loop lot
• Give the receiving ZIP in Michigan
• Name a quantity band, a few pallet-loads up to a truck

Other states

• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Illinois
• Iowa
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• Montana
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Utah
• Vermont

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