Used plastic pallets in Wisconsin

What the jobs data shows for Wisconsin

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts private employers in Wisconsin at 33,054 warehousing and storage jobs across 428 establishments in 2025, about 77.2 jobs per establishment.

• Kenosha County: 8,358 warehousing jobs, 25% of Wisconsin and 0.44% of the country, 2.0 times Milwaukee County.
• Milwaukee County: 4,244 warehousing jobs, 13% of Wisconsin and 0.22% of the country, 51% of the size of Kenosha County.
• Waukesha County: 3,634 warehousing jobs, 11% of Wisconsin and 0.19% of the country, 43% of the size of Kenosha County.

Wisconsin against the country

Wisconsin'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 Wisconsin are a floor and not the whole of its 33,054 jobs.

• The three largest warehousing counties hold 49% of Wisconsin's jobs in the line.
• The average warehouse in Wisconsin employs 77.2 people where the national average is 81.5, a gap of 5 percent below it.
• Food manufacturing employs 2.48 people for every warehousing job in Wisconsin; across the US the ratio is 0.93.
• Wisconsin holds 4.6% of the nation's food manufacturing jobs and 1.7% of its warehousing jobs, so food is the heavier of the two lines here.
• Pharmaceutical manufacturing adds 6,578 jobs, 1.9% of the US total.
• Motor vehicle assembly accounts for 4,788 jobs in Wisconsin, 1.7% of the US total, with another 7,511 in parts.
• Refrigerated space works out at 8,985 cubic feet for every warehousing job, against 2,098 nationally.
• The 2 metros below account for 27% of the state's warehousing jobs, counting disclosed counties only.
• Kenosha County's 8,358 warehousing jobs are more than the whole state total of 14 other states, the largest being Nebraska at 8,246.
• Washington runs warehouses of nearly the same size, at 77.6 jobs per establishment against 77.2 here.
• For food manufacturing, Pennsylvania is the closest match at 82,538 jobs, 545 above Wisconsin's 81,993.
• The smallest county the BLS shows for Wisconsin is Waukesha County with 3,634 jobs; the largest has 2.3 times as many.
• If warehousing jobs were split evenly across 50 states, each would hold 2.0% of the total; Wisconsin holds 1.74%, which is 0.87 times an even share.
• Washington sits above Wisconsin with 3,637 more warehousing jobs, and Maryland sits below with 3,088 fewer.

Where Wisconsin ranks

Wisconsin and the 18 states above it hold 79% of the country's 1,901,976 warehousing jobs between them. The median state has 23,211, so Wisconsin is 9,844 jobs above it; California, the largest, has 236,923, or 7 times as many.

The pallet-using lines in Wisconsin

By location quotient Wisconsin leans hardest on dairy product manufacturing (8.9x the national share). Dairy runs cold and wet, so ask about cold-room use and drainage in the deck.

• Dairy product manufacturing: 28,840 jobs in Wisconsin, 17% of the 168,222 across the US, or 0.87 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Fruit and vegetable preserving: 11,014 jobs in Wisconsin, 6.3% of the 173,844 across the US, or 0.33 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Plastics product manufacturing: 29,656 jobs in Wisconsin, 5.2% of the 575,006 across the US, or 0.90 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Food manufacturing: 81,993 jobs in Wisconsin, 4.6% of the 1,775,008 across the US, or 2.48 for every warehousing job in the state.
• Meat and poultry processing: 16,349 jobs in Wisconsin, 2.9% of the 556,647 across the US, or 0.49 for every warehousing job in the state.

The ladder around Wisconsin

States are ranked by warehousing and storage jobs. Wisconsin is 19th of 50; the table shows the two states above it and the two below.

Metros we list in Wisconsin

2 metros in Wisconsin have 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.

Asking for a lot in Wisconsin

USDA counted 297 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse space in Wisconsin on 1 October 2025, 4th among the states; ask the maker how a pallet behaves frozen.

• Ask for like new in 48 x 40 in or 56 x 44 in
• Write the Wisconsin ZIP where the lot will land
• Say how many pallet-loads, or whether you need a truck

Other states

• Alaska
• Connecticut
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Mississippi
• Nevada
• Oregon
• Tennessee

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