Sell plastic pallets in Michigan
Michigan had 40,753 warehousing jobs in 2025, 16th among the states, and its most concentrated pallet-using industry is motor vehicle parts manufacturing. Send the lot with its ZIP; the desk reads size, style, grade and marks, and rules it sold, returned or scrapped.
Last reviewed November 12, 2026
Michigan in numbers
- Warehousing and storage jobs, 2025
- 40,753 (16th of 50 states)
- Warehousing establishments
- 576 (13th of 50); about 71 jobs each
- Share of US warehousing jobs
- 2.14%
- Food manufacturing jobs
- 44,404 (15th of 50)
- Most concentrated pallet-using industry
- motor vehicle parts manufacturing, 7.5x the national share of employment
- Pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs
- 11,060
- Motor vehicle assembly jobs
- 44,870
- Auto parts jobs
- 111,465
- Refrigerated warehouse space, October 1, 2025
- 88 million cubic feet (15th of 50)
Reading a Michigan lot
Count the warehouses and Michigan comes 13th; count the jobs in them and it comes 16th. It sits in the middle of the fifty by warehousing jobs. With about 71 people a site against a national 82, a lot is often a few stacks from one of many small docks.
Michigan has 1.1 food manufacturing jobs for every warehousing job, against 0.9 across the fifty states. The plants are the bigger half of the picture, and they swap pallets on a schedule more than on wear. Among the other industries counted here, auto parts (111,465 jobs) is 10 times the size of pharmaceutical manufacturing (11,060).
Wayne County holds 54.6% of Michigan's warehousing jobs, and the top 3 listed hold 73.4%. One county carries more than half the state's warehousing, so a lot outside it is a longer haul. The dossier follows 2 metros in Michigan: Detroit-Warren-Dearborn and Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood.
USDA counted 88 million cubic feet of refrigerated warehouse space in Michigan, 15th of 50 and about 2,159 cubic feet for each warehousing job, against 2,254 across the states it reports. Cold storage is a smaller part of the picture here, so most lots come off ambient docks.
Where Michigan's warehousing jobs sit
| County | Warehousing jobs | Share of the state's total |
|---|---|---|
| Wayne | 22,255 | 54.6% |
| Oakland | 4,113 | 10.1% |
| Macomb | 3,556 | 8.7% |
What Michigan's industries put on the dock
- Motor vehicle parts manufacturing: 111,465 jobs, 2025
- Motor vehicle manufacturing: 44,870 jobs, 2025
- Plastics product manufacturing: 32,916 jobs, 2025
- Refrigerated warehousing: 3,158 jobs, 2025
- Fruit and vegetable preserving: 7,444 jobs, 2025
By location quotient motor vehicle parts manufacturing leads in Michigan, with 7.5 times the national share of employment. The page on automotive parts plants shows what that industry sets down on a dock.
Metros and freight clusters in Michigan
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn: 6 counties (Wayne, Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair). 30,083 private jobs in warehousing and storage in 2025 (1.58% of the US total; 1.8% of local private jobs), disclosed counties only. Largest warehousing counties: Wayne (22,255), Oakland (4,113), Macomb (3,556). Most concentrated: motor vehicle parts manufacturing at 9.4x the national share of employment. ZIPs with the most warehousing establishments (Census ZBP 2023): 48150 Livonia (19), 48174 Romulus (18), 48180 Taylor (12), 48111 Belleville (11), 48183 Trenton (10).
Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood. Grand Rapids-Wyoming-Kentwood: 5 counties (Barry, Ionia, Kent, Montcalm, Ottawa). 3,125 private jobs in warehousing and storage in 2025 (0.16% of the US total; 0.6% of local private jobs), disclosed counties only. Largest warehousing counties: Kent (3,064), Ottawa (61). Most concentrated: motor vehicle parts manufacturing at 6.0x the national share of employment. ZIPs with the most warehousing establishments (Census ZBP 2023): 49512 Grand Rapids (11), 49544 Grand Rapids (10), 49548 Grand Rapids (8), 49509 Wyoming (7), 49503 Grand Rapids (5).
Where Michigan sits among the fifty
| Measure, 2025 | Michigan | Next state above | Next state below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warehousing jobs | 16th: 40,753 | Nevada, 42,113 (+1,360) | Kentucky, 38,281 (-2,472) |
| Warehousing establishments | 13th: 576 | North Carolina, 590 (+14) | Indiana, 539 (-37) |
| Food manufacturing jobs | 15th: 44,404 | Missouri, 45,268 (+864) | New Jersey, 43,231 (-1,173) |
States next to Michigan
| State | Warehousing jobs | Largest county for warehousing | Food manufacturing jobs | Top concentration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | 98,354 | Franklin (18,179) | 66,120 | motor vehicle parts manufacturing |
| Indiana | 67,506 | Boone (12,552) | 46,474 | motor vehicle parts manufacturing |
| Wisconsin | 33,054 | Kenosha (8,358) | 81,993 | dairy product manufacturing |
Michigan has fewer warehousing jobs than 2 of these 3 and more than the rest. The largest of them, Ohio, has 2.4 times Michigan's 40,753. A lot near a state line can be read against either side, so give the exact ZIP.
More on Michigan from the sources
- Private employers in the US averaged 288,633 jobs across 934 establishments in motor vehicle manufacturing (NAICS 3361) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: Michigan (44,870), Texas (28,069), California (27,690), Kentucky (23,308), Alabama (22,311). (data.bls.gov)
- Private employers in the US averaged 521,212 jobs across 6,414 establishments in motor vehicle parts manufacturing (NAICS 3363) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: Michigan (111,465), Ohio (62,025), Indiana (52,146), Tennessee (38,791), Kentucky (32,261). (data.bls.gov)
- Counties with the most private motor vehicle manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3361) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Wayne County, Michigan (24,188), Bexar County, Texas (6,165), Cook County, Illinois (5,473), Eaton County, Michigan (4,432), Oakland County, Michigan (735), Los Angeles County, California (643). (data.bls.gov)
- Counties with the most private motor vehicle parts manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3363) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Wayne County, Michigan (20,888), Macomb County, Michigan (20,279), Oakland County, Michigan (16,970), Kent County, Michigan (8,688), Spartanburg County, South Carolina (6,496), Cook County, Illinois (6,273). (data.bls.gov)
Other pallet-using industries counted in Michigan
| Industry | Jobs, 2025 | Against warehousing jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Pharmaceutical manufacturing | 11,060 | 0.3 to 1 |
| Motor vehicle assembly | 44,870 | 1.1 to 1 |
| Auto parts | 111,465 | 2.7 to 1 |
Sending a lot from Michigan
Count the stacks, give the ZIP where they stand, and use the sorter or the form below. If the dock holds a size retired with a customer, say so in the message.
How many warehousing jobs does Michigan have?
40,753 private-sector jobs across 576 establishments in 2025, 2.14% of the US total, which ranks Michigan 16th of 50.
Do you take plastic pallets from Michigan?
Yes. The desk reads lots from every state, and the ZIP lets it read the route in Michigan. This site states no price or pickup date.
Which Michigan industry is most concentrated?
Motor vehicle parts manufacturing, at 7.5 times the national share of employment in the 2025 federal data used here.
What the sources say
- Counties with the most private motor vehicle parts manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3363) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Wayne County, Michigan (20,888), Macomb County, Michigan (20,279), Oakland County, Michigan (16,970), Kent County, Michigan (8,688), Spartanburg County, South Carolina (6,496), Cook County, Illinois (6,273). (data.bls.gov)
- Counties with the most private motor vehicle manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3361) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Wayne County, Michigan (24,188), Bexar County, Texas (6,165), Cook County, Illinois (5,473), Eaton County, Michigan (4,432), Oakland County, Michigan (735), Los Angeles County, California (643). (data.bls.gov)
- Counties with the most private dairy product manufacturing jobs (NAICS 3115) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Sheboygan County, Wisconsin (3,238), Los Angeles County, California (3,204), Franklin County, Ohio (2,930), Tulare County, California (2,916), Dodge County, Wisconsin (2,659), Marathon County, Wisconsin (2,535). (data.bls.gov)
- Counties with the most private fruit and vegetable preserving jobs (NAICS 3114) in 2025, BLS QCEW, counties with disclosed data only: Los Angeles County, California (3,695), Stanislaus County, California (3,669), Fresno County, California (3,355), Cook County, Illinois (2,861), Franklin County, Washington (2,520), Marion County, Oregon (2,273). (data.bls.gov)
- Plastic pallets are often described as lasting 100 trips or more, and can cost roughly 10 times as much as hardwood pallets. (en.wikipedia.org)
- In April 2017, HDPE HMW regrind from drums and IBCs was 24 to 27 cents per pound picked up in the US South (historical, not current). (resource-recycling.com)
- CHEP USA sued two California recyclers over CHEP-marked pallets they would not return; a Los Angeles court granted CHEP's motion to retrieve pallets in one case (article dated February 1, 2024). (palletenterprise.com)
- In December 2011 a Los Angeles County Sheriff task force recovered over $250,000 of illegally obtained plastic pallets, including iGPS pallets, from a plastic recycler. (eponline.com)
- Nelson Company defines dynamic capacity as the load a pallet carries in motion, always below static; static as the load at rest and the bottom pallet's limit in a stack; racking as the load across an open rack span, often the lowest and given only for pallets designed for it. (nelsoncompany.com)
- Private employers in the US averaged 288,633 jobs across 934 establishments in motor vehicle manufacturing (NAICS 3361) in 2025 (BLS QCEW). States with the most jobs: Michigan (44,870), Texas (28,069), California (27,690), Kentucky (23,308), Alabama (22,311). (data.bls.gov)
- EPA's 2018 municipal solid waste data: plastics generation was 35.68 million tons, of which 3.09 million tons (8.7 percent) were recycled and 26.97 million tons landfilled; natural HDPE bottles were recycled at 29.3 percent. The page gives no pallet-specific or polypropylene figure. (epa.gov)
- Rehrig Pacific's 40 x 48 rackable pallet weighs 44.2 lb with a dynamic rating of 4,000 lb, static 10,000 lb and edge rack 2,000 lb. (rehrigpacific.com)
- Rehrig Pacific's 40 x 48 rackable pallet is high-pressure injection molded co-polymer polypropylene, with 540 per 53 ft trailer. (rehrigpacific.com)
- Rehrig Pacific's rackable pallet has a two-piece snap-lock design for quick repair and options for FDA-approved colours, RFID and up to 15 percent black recycled content. (rehrigpacific.com)
- Rehrig Pacific's 40 x 48 standard-duty nestable pallet weighs 26.5 lb with a static rating of 10,000 lb and dynamic 3,000 lb. (rehrigpacific.com)
- That nestable has a 2.50 in nest increment and 1,260 units per 53 ft trailer. (rehrigpacific.com)
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