Why logistics has so many job openings (and how its occupations have evolved)

Do you know the three occupations with the most hiring? Excluding seasonal jobs, they are nursing assistants, followed by home health aides and housekeepers, and finally unskilled packaging workers and material handlers. Another finding from the 2021 edition of Pôle emploi’s « Labor Needs » survey is that 96,060 hiring projects were identified in the transport and warehousing sector.

« In logistics warehouses, labor needs had been significant for several years, and they have become even greater since the health crisis, notes Éric Servolle, Transport and Logistics Market Director at Manpower. We still have many requests to recruit logistics operatives and forklift operators, with growing needs in delivery, planning for goods preparation and pre-shipment, quality control services, and customer satisfaction. » This trend reflects the changing nature of occupations within warehouses.

« Warehouse operatives are becoming increasingly autonomous and empowered, which is leading us to seek out new profiles, Éric Servolle explains. The role of forklift operator is also evolving, as equipment incorporates more and more IT and new order-picking techniques are being deployed. »

As a consequence of this new landscape, staff are receiving increasing amounts of training, both in technical skills and interpersonal skills. Fully automated warehouses, for their part, require fewer logistics operatives and forklift operators, but need labor for the installation, maintenance, and technical inspection of equipment. All these specificities contribute to making recruitment more complex.

Nearly half of hires (47.7%) are considered difficult by companies in the transport and warehousing sector, according to data collected by Pôle Emploi. « Beyond the volumes, our clients are asking us to be increasingly responsive, Éric Servolle specifies. We are regularly asked to fill hundreds of positions within a month when logistics facilities are entrusted to subcontractors. We are adapting by transforming our recruitment methods. »

Another difficulty is that the concentration of facilities around logistics hubs such as Lille, Paris, Lyon, and Marseille—areas where Pôle Emploi has recorded the highest number of hiring projects—leads to a drying up of labor pools. « Today, employees hold the power, says Manpower’s Transport and Logistics Market Director. They decide where they will work based on the employer brand, their onboarding, the hours offered, how their safety is considered… This situation results in high turnover. » But the industry is organizing to address it.

« Logistics stakeholders must communicate their values, their CSR commitments and the career-development opportunities they offer in order to retain employees », says Éric Servolle. Logistics Week, an event organized from November 18 to 20, aims to contribute by opening dozens of warehouses across France to the public.

At the same time, industry professionals are adapting their geographic organizations to address new consumer habits linked to the growth of e-commerce and the resurgence of neighborhood stores. « They are also adapting to workforce mobility, Éric Servolle adds. We have conducted labor-market studies to target the areas where qualified people are willing to travel, particularly mid-sized cities. » This will further strengthen logistics’ contribution to territorial rebalancing and social inclusion.