Labor Shortage In Industrial Will Persist

Robotics can help, but not yet fully solve, the labor shortage in the distribution sector.

CHICAGO—Rich Thompson, global lead of Chicago-based JLL’s supply chain and logistics solutions team, has been with the company for more than a decade and before that he had a long career as a consultant for big corporate occupiers. “I have seen it all,” he tells GlobeSt.com, and some of the most significant changes in the market have occurred in just the past two years.

The cost drivers for this portion of industrial real estate have been, in order, transportation, labor, inventory and then real estate. “It’s always been in that order in terms of weight and importance,” Thompson says. But recently, “labor has become the most influential site selection criteria. That is a really new phenomenon.”