Building warehouses comes with the promise of jobs. Here's what those positions look like

Demand for those workers has plateaued, returning "to a more normalized level," Strauss-Wieder said. But the number of people employed at industrial facilities in the area is still far higher than in pre-pandemic times.

"We've certainly grown our network over the past few years as we brought on clients," said Sabrina Wnorowski, chief human resources officer at Radial, a third-party logistics company with 25 fulfillment centers, including two in New Jersey and three in Pennsylvania. "We've been steadily hiring."

Increased demand, increased pressures

When consumers think about e-commerce and warehousing, they probably think of Amazon, though it's just one of many employers in the industry. The company doubled its warehouse space in the Philadelphia region during the pandemic and last year opened its largest area warehouse in Southwest Philadelphia, which now employs 200 people.

Shoppers are drawn to Amazon's speed and convenience, creating pressure for employees to work faster. Critics have blamed worker productivity tracking for the volume of injuries at the company's fulfillment centers, which in a 2021 Washington Post investigation were found to be nearly double what's typical at non-Amazon warehouses.

"Nothing is more important than our employees' health and safety and we've made meaningful and measurable progress over the last four years," Amazon spokesperson Sharyn Ghacham said. "Since 2019, our recordable incident and lost time rates have improved by 24% and 77%, respectively, in the United States."

Worker advocates are skeptical, the Seattle Times reported in March. Employees around the globe have organized protests around productivity metrics, safety concerns, and pay.

West Deptford, New Jersey, Amazon workers walked off the job last year on Cyber Monday — one of many such demonstrations by Amazon workers on a busy online-shopping day. Their demands included a $25-an-hour starting wage, a $2-an-hour bonus during peak times, and safety improvements.

Amazon didn't grant those wishes after the walkout — the company noted that it had announced increases in hourly pay not long before that, bringing West Deptford's starting wage to $19.50.

But union members said they hadn't expected instant movement from their employer. "We wanted to get a group together to show that we could do this without getting fired, and that's what we did," said Eli Lotz, a West Deptford employee who helped organize the action.

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