Source: Supply Chain Dive
Warehouse employment has surpassed its pre-pandemic level to reach the highest level ever recorded with 1.25 million workers in the warehouse and storage sector in September, according to preliminary numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This bounce-back comes as employment remains below what it was in early Q1 of this year. Overall unemployment dropped to 7.9% in September, which is much lower than the 14.7% seen in April but higher than the 3.5% seen in February.
Warehouse employment has reached a new peak as e-commerce sales are higher than any previous point in time, according to the latest Census data. E-commerce sales jumped almost 32% from Q1 to Q2 to reach nearly $212 billion.
In this sense, the pandemic has simply sped up trends surrounding e-commerce that were already taking place, according to Zachary Rogers, an assistant professor of supply chain management at Colorado State University. Companies that were struggling continued to struggle, while businesses that were improving have gotten better more quickly. E-commerce is the epitome of this trend, Rogers said.
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