Plenty of good-paying warehousing, logistics jobs in Chatham County, but retention is key

More than 20 million square feet of warehouse space is under construction in the Savannah-region, evidence that port-related demand is not slowing down.

And while the development boom industrializes rural parts of the Coastal Empire, impacts the watershed and clogs interstates with thousands more trucks, the resulting wages and benefits offer better quality-of-life opportunities for workers beyond the service and tourism industry. .

"Savannah is one of those lucky few places that's actually increasing in population. There's positive immigration of people coming to live on the coast," said Stacy B. Watson, director of economic and industrial development for the Georgia Port Authority.

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Chatham County's population growth spurt (pop. 295,000) was 11% in the 2020 U.S. Census, and the area is projected to add another 200,000 people in the next 50 years, according to the state Office of Budget Policy.

"So, we've got to find out how many of those (people) are working age," Watson said, "and we've got to put a strategy and a plan together to get those guys gainfully employed in the supply chains."

The influx of people is much-needed in the industrial and logistics sectors, where a projected million-worker shortage is expected to hit the country in the next three years. A look on hiring websites such as Indeed.com shows more than 600 job openings for warehouses in Chatham County.

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With the arrival of dozens of distribution centers, manufacturing plants and the recently announced Hyundai plant in Bryan County, the region will need thousands more workers over the next decade.

For now, competition for the available pool of workers means better pay and benefits for those ready and willing to work.

Pay increases, benefits abound, but retention is key

"Entry-level pay for our participants is like $17, and it was $13.56 two years ago," said Tanika River, director of the Chatham Apprentice Program (CAP) from Step Up Savannah. The program prepares Savannahians from low-wealth communities for jobs in the workforce, teaching hard- and soft-skills over the course of a four-week program.

Rivers said the employers they partner with, such as FedEx, come ready to hire graduates of the program.

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"So, the opportunities are there, but we're still fighting to get them out to the opportunities because (the jobs) are still in those areas where transportation is very limited," Rivers said.

Step Up Savannah, the nonprofit that administers CAP, has identified childcare and transportation as two key issues keeping Savannahians in the lowest-wealth zip codes from better jobs and pay in West Chatham, where the majority of logistics jobs are located.

Rivers said the employers CAP partners with are seeing plenty of applicants for open jobs, but not enough who stick around.

She spoke of an employer that told her, "I had a whole group that went to orientation and there was seven of them. And before they can finish the orientation process, it was like four of them had already quit," she recalled.

The need for soft skills — which allow workers to network, resolve conflict and exist and grow within a professional setting — is big in Chatham County, Rivers said. She reckoned CAP students spend about 25% of their class time learning hard skills, like obtaining a TWIC card or becoming forklift certified, and the rest is spent learning how to operate in a professional setting.

"You have to understand that you just don't quit a job," Rivers said. "So, we do financial literacy, we do mental health. We do all of that. We try to look at the whole thing. This is not about just getting the job. It's about keeping the job."

Unemployment rate, warehouse vacancy too low for healthy market

It's not the oft-touted accusation that "no one wants to work these days." Rather, it's that there aren't enough people to fill the jobs needed.

Since April 2020 — when Savannah saw its lowest levels of employment due to the pandemic — unemployment in Chatham County has decreased 82%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now, the unemployment rate hovers around 2.5%. A healthy rate sits between 4 and 5%, according to the BLS.

The limited labor pool means higher wages and better benefits as companies compete for workers.

According to Indeed, the average warehouse worker in Savannah earns $19.25 an hour, or about $40,000 a year. Add in an average of $4,500 overtime, retirement plans and insurance and that's a living wage for the area.

Even with the pay and benefits, companies are having a hard time hiring.

Watson with GPA said the ports hired 100 people in a single day last month. At Port City Logistics, the largest trucking and warehousing firm in the county, CEO Eric Howell said they need to hire more than 100 workers to fill positions in the facilities they are building now. Rivers said her CAP students are asked to apply as soon as employers meet them, and most students have multiple job offers to choose from at the end of the program.

"I would say at the least two calls a day from employers" looking for workers, Rivers said. "They tell me 'I know your approach, and I need someone that's gonna be reliable.' Someone who's not gonna quit on me within the first 90 days or the first two weeks."

Zoe covers growth and how it impacts communities in the Savannah area. Find her at znicholson@gannett.com, @zoenicholson_ on Twitter, and @zoenicholsonreporter on Instagram. 

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Good paying warehouse jobs in Chatham County are there; retention is key