Tom’s Takes is back with a look ahead at the 2026 labor market across the manufacturing, warehousing and transportation industries. Last year, Tom broke down Employbridge’s Voice of the American Workforce 2025 and what it means for the hourly workforce, but a lot can change in a year. Here is Tom’s latest on how warehousing and transportation employers can win over hourly workers.
The State of the Hourly Workforce
Hourly workers make up more than half of the supply chain workforce, especially in front-line sectors like warehousing, manufacturing and transportation. Their roles can include warehouse floor workers, truck drivers, port workers and more. In other words, hourly workers are more often than not the ones keeping the day-to-day operations in the supply chain moving.
Even though hourly workers make up such a large amount of the supply chain workforce, employers are still struggling to find and maintain workers. According to Employbridge, 29 percent of employers have said that retaining talent is their biggest business challenge. This is further proven by data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which found that employee tenure in the warehousing and transportation industries is decreasing 3x faster than the national average, decreasing 36% from 2012 to 2022 and remaining about the same since.
The struggle to find and retain talent in the warehouse is not new, as the work can be difficult and sometimes dangerous. In this installment of Tom’s Takes, Tom shares three ways that warehousing and transportation employers can not only win over hourly workers, but keep them on-board long-term for a more skilled and more engaged workforce.
Tips for Engaging Your Hourly Workers
A Path to Full-Time Employment
Part time workers are a great asset in warehousing and transportation, especially when it comes to meeting large influxes in demand during peak season. However, when it comes to retaining employees long-term, many want to know that there is a path to more stable, long-term employment.
Offering temporary work that comes with a built-in path to full-time employment will have a big impact on employee satisfaction and retention. Especially as the job market continues to be volatile for job seekers, employees want to be at a company where they feel secure in their roles and confident that they can continue to progress in their career without having to re-enter the job market.
Here are a few ways to provide your hourly workers with a path to career advancement:
- Provide opportunities to gain added work experience that will differentiate them from their peers
- Create stepping stones that enable steady progression from temporary work to a permanent employment status
- Provide hourly and temporary employees with access to leadership and visibility into advancement opportunities
- Provide new skills training that will broaden your employees’ opportunities down the line
Competitive Pay and Benefits to Counter Inflation
Inflation is almost certainly on your employees’ minds as the cost of goods continues to rise. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation was up 2.7 percent YoY in December 2025. Compounded by the steady increase in wage rates, employers are facing much higher compensation expectations.
While maintaining a competitive hourly wage rate will always be important to increasing employee tenure, stability and job security outweigh pay as barriers to accepting temporary work since most hourly workers want to work full-time. A competitive benefits package, like what they would be offered as a full-time associate, is one way to build loyalty within this group of workers. The top three ranked benefits, other than pay, among hourly workers are:
- Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Paid Holidays
- Participation in the company 401(k) with company match
In 2026, a competitive wage rate will be the bare minimum, while the above three factors will even further increase your competitiveness as an employer in the job market.
Flexible Schedules and Pay Frequency
A lot of the insights from the 2025 Voice of the Workforce report can be expected to remain in 2026. For example, hourly and part-time workers will likely continue to prefer day shift work over nights, overnights and weekend shifts.
Additionally, workers will continue desiring leeway at the beginning and end of shifts for personal matters, such as doctor’s appointment, without the risk of violating company attendance policies.
In addition to flexible working hours, hourly workers prefer jobs that pay on a weekly basis. This can be a competitive advantage to attracting talent over bi-weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly pay options.
Tom’s Take – “What’s become clear over the last few years is that labor constraints are not going away. They may be different year to year depending on unique market and economic conditions, but labor management and employee engagement need to be evergreen initiatives for warehouse and transportation employers that want to turn their workforce into a competitive advantage.”
Need more support with creating an excellent labor management program? Contact us for a conversation about breaking down the barriers in your workforce.
