Those jobs have helped some young people find work and have supplied opportunities for others to promote. The logistics industry, anchored by warehouses, employs more than 200,000 people in the Inland Empire. Today, there are more than 4,000, and they take up roughly 1 billion square feet of land. Since then, the number has roughly doubled every 10 years. In 1980, there were 234 warehouses across the Inland Empire. That’s despite the explosive growth of warehouses. By 2016, some 41% of Inland Empire families were classified as “struggling.” The region’s poverty rate rose from 13% in 2005 to 16% in 2016. Photo by Pablo Unzueta for CalMattersīut that same report also lamented the uneven nature of that recovery, with only very wealthy residents showing economic gains. Warehouses in the Inland Empire have grown at an exponentially high pace. That economic foundation, the authors concluded, helped the region withstand the recession in the early 2000s and produce “unexpectedly swift jobs recovery.” An Amazon warehouse in San Bernardino on Feb. They pointed to a 2019 study by the Metropolitan Policy Program of the Brookings Institute that concluded, among other things, that the “Inland Empire’s logistics and manufacturing industries are crucial drivers of economic growth and prosperity.” The new jobs created by warehouses, said Englhard and Jonathan Sharldow, another NAIOP leader, help explain why the Inland Empire has demonstrated economic resiliency in recent years. But that’s hardly new.Īfter all, he asked, “how many 18 to 30 year-olds are buying $700,000 homes?” Englhard concedes that some of those homes will be out of reach to new workers. That means they come from far away, creating traffic and air pollution. With warehouses moving adjacent to some of the Inland Empire’s wealthier neighborhoods, residents have complained that minimum-wage employment will hardly allow those workers to live nearby. There’s nothing novel or wrong about starting at a low wage and moving up. Warehouse workers can become forklift drivers, electricians, truck drivers or warehouse supervisors – all with significant income potential. Moreover, entry-level jobs offer paths for promotion. Yes, many of those warehouse jobs begin at or near minimum wage, but those are appealing to many young people seeking their first employment. “Warehousing is one of the better entry jobs in the region,” he said in a recent interview. He sees warehouses as a crucial link in the region’s economy, both in terms of their importance to international trade and for the local jobs they create. He’s been building projects in Southern California, including the Inland Empire, for decades. Matt Englhard is a developer and leader of the National Association of Office Parks, known as NAIOP. It is both significant and significantly worrisome. So, how great is the economic benefit in terms of jobs that warehouses bring to Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where the number of these buildings has been geometrically expanding? What makes warehouses worth it, at least some of the time, is the jobs that they produce. People don’t necessarily love to live near schools or hospitals, but they accept them as necessary parts of any community. They are not especially good neighbors.īut that’s true of a lot of economic activity. And with those trucks come traffic, air pollution and noise. They are serviced by trucks, sometimes 24 hours a day. They take up large amounts of land that could be used for other purposes, from housing to open space. Much of the debate over warehouse construction in the Inland Empire – where the boom has been explosive in recent years – revolves around a single word: jobs.Īre the jobs worth it? Warehouses are, after all, both a job creator and an inconvenience. Is the region prepared for what comes next? But the wages they provide barely keep people out of poverty, and this work may soon disappear altogether because of automation. The main justification for the explosion of warehouses in the Inland Empire has been their economic benefits, primarily around job creation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |