Layoffs Top 1,600 at Ross Warehouses in California
Ross Stores distribution centers in California are seeing a major staff shakeup as the discount retailer is reportedly transitioning to a new third-party warehouse staffing provider.
DMSI, a company that staffs Ross’ warehouses and distribution centers on-site, is laying off more than 1,600 employees across six facilities in the state, according to several Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notices.
It is unclear what specific role the impacted employees played at the off-price seller’s facilities, or how many employees still work at the affected sites.
All layoffs are permanent and will be effective Jan. 26.
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DMSI is a Charlotte, N.C.-based staffing, recruiting and third-party logistics (3PL) services provider for retailers and manufacturers. The staffing company would hire employees to work for Ross as loaders and unloaders, material handlers, sorters, packers and other general warehouse positions. DMSI also lists other retailers alongside Ross as clients, including TJX-owned T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods; Dick’s Sporting Goods; and Cato Fashions.
An anonymous post on Instagram shared by @Morenovalleymatters Tuesday indicates Ross recently replaced DMSI with another staffing agency, Adecco.
A Dec. 26 Facebook post from Adecco that links to Ross warehouse job openings on its site appears to confirm the partnership.
Across three Moreno Valley, Calif. facilities, 613 jobs have been cut, including 581 employees at a 740,000-square-foot distribution center. Ross’ 1.6-million-square-foot Southwest distribution center in Perris, Calif. will see 493 DMSI employees get the axe as well.
These impacted facilities are located in California’s Inland Empire, an industrial real estate hub and major metropolitan area located east of Los Angeles.
DMSI also said 537 more workers will be laid off across two warehouses in Shafter, Calif., which is located roughly 130 miles north of Los Angeles. Most of those cuts (528) will take place at Ross’ Central Valley distribution center, measured at 1.7 million square feet.
On the Ross Stores website, there are job openings listed for a distribution center warehouse supervisor at both the Shafter and Perris DCs.
Ross Stores says it has eight distribution centers, including the three DCs in Moreno Valley, Perris and Shafter, as well as five more across South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Arizona. The Buckeye, Ariz. location has not opened yet, but is completed.
The discount retailer is also constructing a ninth DC in Randleman, N.C., but has not revealed when it expects the warehouse to be fully completed and open.
Counting distribution centers and other warehouse facilities, Ross Stores operates 23 sites in total.
Sourcing Journal reached out to Ross Stores and DMSI, which first filed the WARN notices on Nov. 20.
The Ross-impacted jobs aren’t the only recent logistics layoffs in California, with GXO cutting 343 positions in a Bloomington facility in December, and another 25 let go before Feb. 7 as part of a warehouse closure in Colton. GXO performed warehousing services for Adidas at both of those facilities.
Additionally, less-than-truckload (LTL) company Mountain Valley Express, LLC, terminated 74 transportation and warehousing employees across five facilities effective Jan. 23, according to a Nov. 25 WARN notice.
Those job losses follow the revival of the Mountain Valley Express brand amid a recent merger. Parcel delivery company GLS US acquired the LTL in 2019 before rebranding it as GLS Freight two years later. In September, California-based DC Logistics acquired GLS US and its brokerage operations from Dutch parent GLS Group, renaming the new company Mountain Valley Express.
On the East Coast, e-commerce fulfillment provider ShipMonk said in a Dec. 16 WARN notice that it would lay off 67 workers at a warehouse in Bay Shore, N.Y. That facility is set to close on April 30, with the company saying it is relocating to a new site.
Warehousing and storage has been stagnant in total jobs growth over the past year, hosting roughly 100 fewer jobs compared to a year ago in November, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Compared to two years ago, the gap is steeper. On a preliminary, seasonally adjusted basis, there were 1,772,200 workers in the subsector in the month. This represents a 5.6 percent decline, or 104,600 fewer employees, from November 2022’s 1,876,800-worker total.
The wider transportation and warehousing sector, which also includes employees in subsectors like trucking and couriers, saw a slight increase in employees since last November, the preliminary BLS data showed.
There were 6,627,200 employees in transportation and warehousing in November 2024, a 1.4 percent increase of 88,300 employees from the 6,538,900 a year prior.
