One of the latest cuts comes from Geodis, a France-based transportation and logistics company, which recently notified the state that it plans to permanently lay off 238 workers from its facility located at 1710 West Baseline Road in Rialto. According to California WARN filings, the layoffs are expected to take effect by early July.

    The announcement follows other recent reductions throughout the region’s warehousing and distribution sector. Earlier this month, CJ Logistics America, headquartered in Illinois, disclosed plans to eliminate 71 positions at its Fontana warehouse operation.

    Meanwhile, Eclipse Advantage, a Florida-based staffing and workforce support company that serves logistics and manufacturing businesses, announced it will close its Rancho Cucamonga facility by May 30.

    The Inland Empire, long considered one of the nation’s largest logistics and warehouse hubs, has seen steady growth in massive distribution centers over the last decade. However, the sector has recently faced increasing uncertainty as companies adjust operations amid changing economic conditions.

    Industry analysts point to several contributing factors behind the layoffs, including inflation, rising energy costs, tariffs, political uncertainty and the growing use of artificial intelligence and automation throughout supply chain operations.

    The slowdown is not limited to Southern California. According to FreightWaves, which covers the transportation and logistics industry, WARN notices and company announcements show similar workforce reductions occurring in states including Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

    Recent employment figures released by the California Employment Development Department also reflect the strain on the Inland Empire job market.

    The unemployment rate in Riverside County stood at 5.1% in March 2026, while San Bernardino County recorded a 5.0% rate, according to the EDD’s May 1 labor report. By comparison, California’s statewide unemployment rate was 5.2%, while the national unemployment rate was reported at 4.3% during the same period.

    Between February and March, the Inland Empire’s trade, transportation and utilities sector posted the region’s largest monthly job losses, declining by approximately 2,600 positions overall. Of those losses, transportation and warehousing accounted for roughly 2,200 jobs, according to state data.

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At the center of the plan is the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a roughly 300-kilometer rail and logistics network stretching between the port of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca and Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz. The system combines upgraded rail lines, modernized ports and planned industrial hubs, with the goal of moving cargo from coast to coast in under seven hours.

Rather than a traditional canal, the project operates as a “dry canal.” Cargo arrives by ship, is unloaded onto freight trains, transported across southern Mexico and then reloaded onto vessels on the opposite coast. Mexican officials say the corridor could eventually handle up to 1.4 million containers annually.

The push comes at a time when the Panama Canal has faced mounting challenges. Severe drought conditions in 2023 forced officials there to limit ship traffic, exposing how dependent the canal is on freshwater to operate its lock system. That vulnerability has opened the door for alternatives — and Mexico is positioning its corridor as one of them, especially for trade routes connecting Asia to the eastern United States.

Unlike Panama, the rail-based system doesn’t rely on water levels, giving it a potential edge during periods of climate-related disruption. It may also appeal to operators of larger vessels that can struggle to pass through the canal’s locks.

The corridor itself is being built out in phases. The main route, known as the Z Line, has already been operating since late 2023. Additional lines will expand connections deeper into southeastern Mexico and eventually toward Guatemala, bringing the total network to more than 1,200 kilometers. Both Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos have undergone upgrades to handle increased shipping demand.

Beyond transportation, the Mexican government is planning a series of industrial zones along the route — potentially between 10 and 14 hubs — offering tax incentives to attract manufacturers and logistics companies. The strategy ties into the broader “nearshoring” trend, as companies look to move production closer to U.S. markets.

Still, there are real challenges that could limit how competitive the project becomes. Unlike a canal, where ships pass through continuously, the rail corridor requires cargo to be unloaded, transferred and then reloaded — adding both cost and complexity. How efficiently that process is handled will likely determine whether the corridor can compete at scale.

So far, cargo volumes have not reached projected levels, and some analysts remain cautious. Coordinating port operations, rail logistics and industrial activity into a seamless system will be key, along with ensuring security and workforce readiness.

The concept itself isn’t new. Mexico first established a similar connection across the isthmus in the 19th century, but it lost relevance after the Panama Canal opened in 1914. More than a century later, shifting global trade patterns and the canal’s recent constraints have revived interest in the route.

Officials see the corridor as more than just a transportation alternative. It’s also intended to drive economic development in southern Mexico, a region that has long lagged behind other parts of the country.

Whether it becomes a true rival to the Panama Canal or falls short of expectations will depend on how well the system performs once it’s fully operational and tested by real-world demand.

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Maersk said that locating the hub in Fontana “accelerates turnaround times by up to five hours and expands customer options through the Ontario corridor, just 2.5 hours inland, complementing LAX for greater flexibility.”

The Fontana facility complements Maersk’s existing Ground Freight stations in Sacramento (SMF), San Francisco (SFO), San Diego (SAN) and Los Angeles (LAX), strengthening the company’s network across California.

“Convenient access to Interstates 10 and 15, proximity to Ontario International Airport (ONT), and rail connections, combined with its Inland Empire location, make Fontana a strategic hub for efficient, scalable logistics solutions,” Maersk added.

The Inland Empire, encompassing Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario, is the nation’s largest warehouse and logistics region, with more than 1.1 billion sqft (102m sqm) of industrial space. Situated 80km east of Los Angeles, it serves as the primary distribution centre for Southern California and acts as the “next closest place” for freight storage after leaving the LA/Long Beach port terminals.

The area has shifted from agriculture to a logistics powerhouse, driven by e-commerce, with major hubs in Ontario, Moreno Valley and Fontana. It now hosts a rapidly expanding footprint of warehouses, third-party logistics (3PL) providers, and industrial parks.

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We can get the national analysis out of the way: There was a higher than expected increase in the employment numbers (275,000) while the even higher initially released January numbers were revised downwards to more reasonable levels (229,000). Yes, the unemployment rate did increase from 3.7% to 3.9%, but that was due to healthy employment growth being outpaced by an even larger increase in the labor force.

Since then, the inflation numbers have also been published, and while they did not improve further and by the magnitude we’d hoped for, the U.S. economy continues to be on a path for a soft landing (reducing inflation rates to 2% without creating a recession).

This is important, because the Federal Reserve would be less likely to lower interest rates during summer if the job market was as hot as initially estimated and inflation remains sticky above the 2% target. The central bank left interest rates unchanged after its meeting last week, but indicated it is close to start lowering the interest rates as policy makers become confident that “it will be appropriate to dial back.” Chairman Jerome Powell said they were “not far from it.” As the UCLA Anderson Forecast put it in its most recent report, we are on a path to normalcy.

Now let us focus on our state and region. For the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario Metropolitan Statistical Area, some of the annual revisions were substantial. In the Inland Empire, the Logistics industry lost significantly more jobs (some 5,000 depending on which month you focus on) since last summer than originally assumed and shows a steeper downward trend. On the other hand, Education and Health Services has gained more jobs than previously thought, roughly 10,000 more and the numbers are trending upward, confirming it as the sector with the largest share of labor in the Inland Empire.

The headline news for the Inland Empire is that the unemployment rate jumped up by half percentage points, increasing significantly from 5.0% to 5.5%. Since the Inland Empire’s economy is often described as “first in, last out,” shall we take this as the first sign of the national economy tanking after all, resulting in a “hard landing” (decrease in inflation coinciding with a recession)?

The initially bleak picture is simply an artifact of the data, generated by regularly occurring seasonal patterns. Without getting too technical, we will try to convince you that you should look at seasonally adjusted data rather than the raw data from the EDD. While for some months the difference is negligible, in January it is particularly high, since there are layoffs every year due to the post-holiday season. It is not surprising that the largest raw data (non-seasonally adjusted) employment losses for the Inland Empire came in Retail Trade, Logistics, and Leisure and Hospitality. Filtering out these effects is important since they give a misleading picture of the underlying economy. Total employment reported did not go down 32,300 (which would represent an alarming 2%); instead, it went up by 4,850.

The increase in employment reported by households (+9,100) aligned with the increase in establishment employment (+4,850). Residency measured employment increased by more than what establishments reported. This is probably due to commuters, most of whom work in the coastal areas. The employment status of these commuters is reported by households in the region, not by establishments. This means that significant job growth among commuters could explain the difference for January.

Let us get more specific. Compared to the bleak picture painted by the raw establishment data (decreases of -8,200 in Retail Trade, -7,400 in Logistics, -6,500 in Professional and Business Services, and -3,700 in Leisure and Hospitality), the numbers we get after accounting for seasonal patterns are more positive. The biggest decrease was seen in Professional and Business Services (almost -1,200), at only roughly a fifth of what non-seasonally adjusted data indicated. For Retail Trade (-500), Logistics (+250), and Leisure and Hospitality (-700) numbers also look less worrisome. Bottom line: Do not make major decisions based on non-seasonally adjusted data.

Applying standard statistical techniques to remove seasonal regularities results in the (seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate actually falling by 0.1 percentage points from 5.7% to 5.6% in the Inland Empire.

The change came in the healthiest way possible: through a simultaneous increase in employment and labor force, the former outpacing the latter (+9,100 and +6,200, respectively). After six consecutive months of increases in the civilian unemployment rate, this is encouraging. The result holds despite the fact we only observed significant employment increases during three months in 2023.

The Inland Empire will need more time to recover from the very concerning decreases of 12,800 for the labor force and 13,600 for employment observed between November and December. Despite this, the Inland Empire continues to be the poster child of the economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession,. While we will continue to see some structural adjustment between the industries of the region, we are on a positive path as far as the economy is concerned.

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