If you’ve driven along Route 60 through Moreno Valley, you’ve seen the massive warehouses that have sprung up alongside the freeway. These buildings, and similar ones throughout the Inland Empire, have made the region the nation’s largest logistics hub in the country, according to a recent article in the New York Times. “Logistics” is the name for the redistribution of imported goods that have been imported through Los Angeles-area ports. The area offers cheap land and access to major freeways. During the prolonged construction slump, the logistics industry has become the largest private employer in the IE, with around 200,000 workers so far, about 10 percent of all local jobs. Local governments have welcomed the jobs, but others have not been so pleased. Environmentalists point to the noise, dust, traffic, and habitat destruction that accompanies the industry. Worker groups complain that much of the employment is achieved through staffing agencies, who classify the workers as temporary, thereby avoiding paying benefits. In addition, it is claimed that in many warehouses work is assigned on a first-come basis, so many are sent home without work.
Jordan Levine, the director of economic research at Beacon Economics, a research and consulting firm, said. “It’s attractive because it’s something that governments can take advantage of now. There’s no need to have to recruit an educated work-force base or have a lot of strategy around.” He added, “All that stuff takes time and money and decades to bear fruit. This is far more expedient.”
WAREHOUSING BOOMS IN THE INLAND EMPIRE
