Wholesale plastic pallets shipped to West Virginia

Measured against the national total for each industry, West Virginia is strongest in chemical manufacturing, with 0.85% of the US jobs, and weakest in plastics product manufacturing, with 0.70%. The state holds 0.19% of US warehousing jobs, so a share above that line means the industry is bigger here than the warehousing base alone suggests.

Wood holds 18.8% of the state's warehousing jobs, and the 3 counties shown together hold 28.7%. Counties with undisclosed data are left out, so these are floors, not complete counts.

West Virginia stands 143 jobs behind Maine and 348 ahead of New Hampshire. The median state has 23,211 warehousing jobs, so West Virginia sits at 16 percent of that line.

• The average West Virginia warehousing site employs 36 people against 81 nationally, so a typical site here is 45 percent the size of the national one.
• Food manufacturing employs 1.00 people for every warehousing job in West Virginia; across the whole country the figure is 0.93.
• Motor vehicle assembly and parts together account for 3,925 jobs in West Virginia, 0.5% of the 809,845 nationwide.
• Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing adds 823 jobs, 0.23% of the national 350,886, which makes it 39th of the 46 states that report.
• California has the most warehousing jobs of any state, 236,923, and West Virginia has 1.5% of that.
• By number of warehousing establishments West Virginia is 39th of fifty, and by average site size it is 43rd, so it has more sites than its job count alone would suggest.
• In food manufacturing West Virginia ranks 47th with 3,636 jobs, 0.2% of the US total of 1,775,008.
• The 3 counties shown hold 1,043 of the state's 3,631 warehousing jobs, so 2,588 sit in other counties or in counties whose data is not disclosed.

Our sources show no figure for West Virginia in motor vehicle assembly and cold storage capacity. Those gaps are in the data, which hides or omits small cells to protect privacy; they are not a claim that the industry is absent, and a missing row above means the same.

Loads for West Virginia often share a corridor with the neighbours below. The ratio column divides the neighbour's warehousing jobs by West Virginia's 3,631, so a ratio above 1 means a larger warehousing base across the line.

Lane pages for the neighbours: Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

The table sets West Virginia 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, West Virginia would need to add 19,580; to reach its 306 median sites it would need to add 206.
• Its 0.19% of US warehousing jobs compares with 0.20% of US food manufacturing jobs, a ratio of 1.07: food plants weigh more here than warehouses do.
• If each of the 100 sites took one standard 53 ft trailer of pallets a month, the state would see 1,200 trailers a year; that is an illustration of scale, not a forecast of demand.
• ZIP codes in West Virginia fall in 247 to 268, so the first three digits of a ship-to are enough to place a dock inside the state.
• Chemical manufacturing is the largest listed industry on this page at 7,595 jobs, 2.09 for every warehousing job and 76 for every warehousing site.
• Dividing the 3,636 food manufacturing jobs by the 100 warehousing sites gives 36.4; across the country the same division gives 76.0.
• The state's 0.19% of US warehousing jobs equals one job in every 526 nationwide.

A thought experiment with the same data: if all 100 West Virginia sites were the size of the average US site, at 81.5 jobs, the state would have 8,147 warehousing jobs, which is 4,516 more than the 3,631 it has. Its sites are smaller than the national average.

• Against Kentucky, West Virginia has 34,650 fewer warehousing jobs, 330 fewer sites and 27,637 fewer food manufacturing jobs; the typical Kentucky site holds 89.0 jobs and the typical West Virginia site 36.3; food jobs per warehousing job run 1.00 here and 0.82 there.
• Against Maryland, West Virginia has 26,335 fewer warehousing jobs, 145 fewer sites and 15,964 fewer food manufacturing jobs; the typical Maryland site holds 122.3 jobs and the typical West Virginia site 36.3; food jobs per warehousing job run 1.00 here and 0.65 there.
• Against Ohio, West Virginia has 94,723 fewer warehousing jobs, 922 fewer sites and 62,484 fewer food manufacturing jobs; the typical Ohio site holds 96.2 jobs and the typical West Virginia site 36.3; food jobs per warehousing job run 1.00 here and 0.67 there.
• Against Pennsylvania, West Virginia has 119,850 fewer warehousing jobs, 1,062 fewer sites and 78,902 fewer food manufacturing jobs; the typical Pennsylvania site holds 106.3 jobs and the typical West Virginia site 36.3; food jobs per warehousing job run 1.00 here and 0.67 there.
• Against Virginia, West Virginia has 47,492 fewer warehousing jobs, 429 fewer sites and 29,048 fewer food manufacturing jobs; the typical Virginia site holds 96.6 jobs and the typical West Virginia site 36.3; food jobs per warehousing job run 1.00 here and 0.64 there.

• Chemical manufacturing employs 7,595 in West Virginia, 0.85% of the 892,426 nationwide; for every warehousing job the state has 2.09 of these jobs.
• Motor vehicle parts manufacturing employs 3,925 in West Virginia, 0.75% of the 521,212 nationwide; for every warehousing job the state has 1.08 of these jobs.
• Plastics product manufacturing employs 4,044 in West Virginia, 0.70% of the 575,006 nationwide; for every warehousing job the state has 1.11 of these jobs.

• Wood is 1st of the counties shown with 684 warehousing jobs, which is 18.8 times the average West Virginia site headcount of 36 and 0.04% of all US warehousing jobs.
• Putnam is 2nd of the counties shown with 190 warehousing jobs, which is 5.2 times the average West Virginia site headcount of 36 and 0.01% of all US warehousing jobs.
• Harrison is 3rd of the counties shown with 169 warehousing jobs, which is 4.7 times the average West Virginia site headcount of 36 and 0.01% of all US warehousing jobs.

• The dock address and ZIP; ZIPs in West Virginia begin with 247 to 268.
• 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.