Wholesale plastic pallets shipped to Iowa

Measured against the national total for each industry, Iowa is strongest in meat and poultry processing, with 6.0% of the US jobs, and weakest in plastics product manufacturing, with 1.5%. The state holds 1.04% of US warehousing jobs, so a share above that line means the industry is bigger here than the warehousing base alone suggests.

Polk holds 22.2% of the state's warehousing jobs, and the 3 counties shown together hold 50.4%. Counties with undisclosed data are left out, so these are floors, not complete counts.

The market dossier lists one metro market in Iowa. ZIPs are examples of addresses inside each, drawn from Census data.

Iowa stands 871 jobs behind Massachusetts and 155 ahead of Oklahoma. The median state has 23,211 warehousing jobs, so Iowa sits at 85 percent of that line.

• The average Iowa warehousing site employs 59 people against 81 nationally, so a typical site here is 72 percent the size of the national one.
• Food manufacturing employs 3.03 people for every warehousing job in Iowa; across the whole country the figure is 0.93.
• Motor vehicle assembly and parts together account for 4,483 jobs in Iowa, 0.6% of the 809,845 nationwide.
• Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing adds 4,094 jobs, 1.2% of the national 350,886, which makes it 23rd of the 46 states that report.
• Cold storage runs 3,531 thousand cubic feet of gross refrigerated capacity for every thousand warehousing jobs here, against 2,098 thousand for the country as a whole.
• California has the most warehousing jobs of any state, 236,923, and Iowa has 8.4% of that.
• By number of warehousing establishments Iowa is 22nd of fifty, and by average site size it is 35th, so it has more sites than its job count alone would suggest.
• In food manufacturing Iowa ranks 10th with 60,161 jobs, 3.4% of the US total of 1,775,008.
• The 3 counties shown hold 9,987 of the state's 19,824 warehousing jobs, so 9,837 sit in other counties or in counties whose data is not disclosed.

Every measure on this page has a figure for Iowa: warehousing, food, pharmaceutical, motor vehicle assembly and parts, counties and cold storage.

Loads for Iowa often share a corridor with the neighbours below. The ratio column divides the neighbour's warehousing jobs by Iowa's 19,824, so a ratio above 1 means a larger warehousing base across the line.

Lane pages for the neighbours: Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

The table sets Iowa beside each state that borders it on the same five measures: establishments, jobs per site, food manufacturing jobs for each warehousing job, share of the US warehousing total, and sites for every thousand warehousing jobs. All of it is arithmetic on the BLS counts named in the sources.

• To reach the median state's 23,211 warehousing jobs, Iowa would need to add 3,387; to reach its 306 median sites it would have to lose 32.
• Its 1.04% of US warehousing jobs compares with 3.39% of US food manufacturing jobs, a ratio of 3.25: food plants weigh more here than warehouses do.
• If each of the 338 sites took one standard 53 ft trailer of pallets a month, the state would see 4,056 trailers a year; that is an illustration of scale, not a forecast of demand.
• ZIP codes in Iowa fall in 500 to 528, so the first three digits of a ship-to are enough to place a dock inside the state.
• Meat and poultry processing is the largest listed industry on this page at 33,386 jobs, 1.68 for every warehousing job and 99 for every warehousing site.
• Dividing the 60,161 food manufacturing jobs by the 338 warehousing sites gives 178.0; across the country the same division gives 76.0.
• The state's 1.04% of US warehousing jobs equals one job in every 96 nationwide.

A thought experiment with the same data: if all 338 Iowa sites were the size of the average US site, at 81.5 jobs, the state would have 27,538 warehousing jobs, which is 7,714 more than the 19,824 it has. Its sites are smaller than the national average.

• Illinois has 60,247 more warehousing jobs, 526 more sites and 38,139 more food manufacturing jobs than Iowa, so a Illinois dock averages 92.7 jobs per site against 58.7 here, and 1.23 food jobs for each warehousing job against 3.03.
• Minnesota has 1,903 fewer warehousing jobs, 26 fewer sites and 12,332 fewer food manufacturing jobs than Iowa, so a Minnesota dock averages 57.4 jobs per site against 58.7 here, and 2.67 food jobs for each warehousing job against 3.03.
• Missouri has 6,902 more warehousing jobs, 185 more sites and 14,893 fewer food manufacturing jobs than Iowa, so a Missouri dock averages 51.1 jobs per site against 58.7 here, and 1.69 food jobs for each warehousing job against 3.03.
• Nebraska has 11,578 fewer warehousing jobs, 182 fewer sites and 18,222 fewer food manufacturing jobs than Iowa, so a Nebraska dock averages 52.9 jobs per site against 58.7 here, and 5.09 food jobs for each warehousing job against 3.03.
• South Dakota has 16,555 fewer warehousing jobs, 296 fewer sites and 49,295 fewer food manufacturing jobs than Iowa, so a South Dakota dock averages 77.8 jobs per site against 58.7 here, and 3.32 food jobs for each warehousing job against 3.03.
• Wisconsin has 13,230 more warehousing jobs, 90 more sites and 21,832 more food manufacturing jobs than Iowa, so a Wisconsin dock averages 77.2 jobs per site against 58.7 here, and 2.48 food jobs for each warehousing job against 3.03.

• Meat and poultry processing employs 33,386 in Iowa, 6.0% of the 556,647 nationwide; for every warehousing job the state has 1.68 of these jobs.
• Food manufacturing employs 60,161 in Iowa, 3.4% of the 1,775,008 nationwide; for every warehousing job the state has 3.03 of these jobs.
• Refrigerated warehousing employs 1,814 in Iowa, 2.5% of the 73,136 nationwide; for every warehousing job the state has 0.09 of these jobs.
• Dairy product manufacturing employs 3,922 in Iowa, 2.3% of the 168,222 nationwide; for every warehousing job the state has 0.20 of these jobs.
• Plastics product manufacturing employs 8,910 in Iowa, 1.5% of the 575,006 nationwide; for every warehousing job the state has 0.45 of these jobs.

• Polk is 1st of the counties shown with 4,393 warehousing jobs, which is 74.9 times the average Iowa site headcount of 59 and 0.23% of all US warehousing jobs.
• Scott is 2nd of the counties shown with 3,450 warehousing jobs, which is 58.8 times the average Iowa site headcount of 59 and 0.18% of all US warehousing jobs.
• Black Hawk is 3rd of the counties shown with 2,144 warehousing jobs, which is 36.6 times the average Iowa site headcount of 59 and 0.11% of all US warehousing jobs.

• The dock address and ZIP; ZIPs in Iowa begin with 500 to 528.
• Whether the dock has a loading dock or needs a liftgate trailer.
• Receiving hours and whether delivery needs an appointment.
• The footprint and the number of pallets, or the number of trailers.
• The three ratings the load needs, or a description of the load.
• Resin and colourant papers wanted, if the pallets touch food or pharma product.
• The month you want them, and whether a standing supply follows.