Thanks to the expansion of e-commerce in the United States, there are simply not enough people to operate the warehouses or to drive the delivery vehicles.
“Online orders show no chance of slowing, but finding workers to staff warehouses is becoming more and more difficult. As the unemployment rate closes in on a ten-year low, the lack of competition in these jobs means wages are increasing to entice workers into warehouses,” says BCS Placement, which specialises in placement in the logistics industry.
Amazon alone plans to absorb 52 000 full-time employees and 35 000 seasonal workers in the fourth quarter of the year – and analysts warn that the company’s growth may be affected by the shortage of workers, despite the increasing use of robots and autonomous vehicles. Don Cunningham, president and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation, is quoted in the Morning Call as saying that UK online fashion retailer ASOS had to abandon plans to build a US$40-million e-commerce fulfilment centre outside of Atlanta because it did not believe it could find the 1 600 people needed to run it.
There are also challenges in moving the freight to and from the warehouses. The American Trucking Association (ATA) estimates that the United States needs nearly a million more truck drivers to keep the wheels of industry moving.
