Warehouse Industry Facts

  • The operations clustered in the Inland Empire distribute goods from countless suppliers and manufacturers to the giant retailers that dominate the U.S. economy: Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, and K-Mart/Sears. Ultimately, these are the corporations that are responsible for the working conditions and treatment of warehouse workers.
  • The warehouses of the Inland Empire form the largest single concentration of warehouses in the world. 366,000,000 sq/ft of warehouse space.
  • Riverside and San Bernardino counties lead the nation’s largest metropolitan areas in unemployment.
  • The Inland Empire has the third highest percentage of housing units in foreclosure among large metropolitan areas.
  • Only three percent of workers in blue-collar warehouse jobs earn a basic family wage.
  • 118,000 workers are employed by warehouses in the Inland Empire
  • Over 53,000 of warehouse workers are hired for part-time jobs through temp agencies.
  • Between 1990 and 2007, temporary employment in the Inland Empire grew by 575%.
  • Over 43% of all U.S. imports come through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Many of these goods are then shipped by truck or rail to warehouses and distribution centers in the Inland Empire.
  • The Inland Empire area has the fourth highest levels of particulate pollution in the world, after Jakarta, Calcutta, and Bangkok, according to available data. The South Coast Air Quality Management District blames diesel truck pollution for increasing the cancer risks of Inland Empire residents.
  • The University of Southern California (USC) Children's Health Study found children in the Mira Loma area to have the slowest lung growth and weakest lung capacity in Southern California.
  • About 90% of road-related diesel pollution in Southern California comes from trucks moving goods.*
  • The good movement industry accounts for 14% of the payroll in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.*
  • Southern California lost more than 361,000 manufacturing jobs between 1990 and 2005.*
  • 200,000 diesel trucks are on the road each day in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.*
  • The number of trucks on the road is expected to double in the next 12 years.*
  • 75% of the cargo coming into the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach takes at least one truck trip to the Inland Empire.*
  • In 2003, 30,600 trucks traveled on Highway 60. That number is now up to 35,000.*
  • $337,000,000,000 worth of goods arrived in Southern California last year.*

    *Press-Enterprise Cargo's Crossroads Series