Warehouse work is increasingly shaped by subcontracting, precarious employment and fragmented supply chains, creating risks relating to wages, working conditions and living conditions. Outsourced and agency-based models weaken accountability for fair pay and conditions, leading to low wages, irregular hours and limited access to benefits or social protection.
Precarious employment arrangements result in income instability and unpredictable schedules, making it difficult for workers to plan their lives or secure adequate living conditions. Workers can face intense performance targets, long or irregular shifts and limited rest, particularly in high-pressure environments such as e-commerce logistics.
These risks can be exacerbated for migrant workers, who face additional barriers to accessing housing, social protection and support services. Poor coordination across supply chains also means that working conditions vary significantly within the same operation.
Together, these factors affect job quality, worker wellbeing and workforce stability, and create operational and reputational risks for companies relying on warehousing and logistics.
Warehousing and logistics do not have a labour supply problem; it has a decent work deficit. Warehousing operations globally face persistent workforce challenges including decent work shortages, high turnover, skills gaps and increasing reliance on migrant or temporary labour. These pressures are driven by e-commerce’s demand for rapid order fulfilment and high throughput, weakened regulations and enforcement of labour standards, market fragmentation and downward cost pressures, and a race to the bottom in labour costs and standards that increasingly fall below minimum human rights thresholds.
More than 370,000 warehousing roles remained unfilled in the USA in 2025; 53% of warehouse operators in the Asia-Pacific region reported difficulty recruiting workers in 2022; and the global warehouse industry could face a shortfall of over 2 million workers by 2030.
Workforce instability creates significant human and labour rights risks. High turnover puts inexperienced workers into physically demanding or hazardous tasks without sufficient training. Short-staffing and production targets intensify work, increasing the likelihood of accidents involving forklifts, automated equipment or manual handling. Constant pressure to maintain productivity levels despite insufficient staffing levels increases fatigue, stress and injury risks.
Non-standard forms of employment and migrant and non-resident labour are increasingly used to address workforce challenges, deepening the decent work deficit rather than resolving it. These workers lack familiarity with safety procedures, equipment operation or emergency protocols, increasing risks, and language barriers also undermine effective communication of safety procedures and rights.
Workforce challenges also weaken collective bargaining and grievance mechanisms. Workers in precarious or temporary roles often feel unable to raise safety concerns or report hazards for fear of losing their jobs, undermining any positive safety culture.
For more on workforce challenges, see the Risks Across Transport guidance.