If this country's economic malaise makes you worry about your kids' future, there's a line of work you can direct them to that seems to be recession-proof. It's in the warehouse. The Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC) recently released its 2008 study of warehousing salaries and wages, and warehouse workers enjoyed a 7.1% increase in earnings.

Now, a few things need to be explained before you drive junior to the nearest employment agency. The majority of those who responded to the survey worked for wholesalers/distributors (35%) and third party logistics providers (33%), and the predominant industry was food and beverage.

You gotta eat. That seems to explain the job stability in this sector. As you'll see in Allison Manning's analysis of our annual “Top 20 warehouses,” food and beverage warehousing seems to be insulated from the extreme hot and cold business climate. In fact, as the story concludes, public refrigerated warehouses are expanding to meet customer demand.

According to the WERC study (which did not figure into our analysis), median square footage of the warehouses surveyed was 290,000. The biggest segment (30%) had 200,001-500,000 square feet, while 29% had more than 500,000 square feet.

That's a lot of floor space for lift trucks to cover, therefore those warehouse workers are earning their keep making sure batteries don't die in the middle of shifts. You'd think that would be a no-brainer, but battery maintenance requires various levels of knowledge, over and above knowing when it's time to bring the lift truck back to the charging room. Bob Trebilcock's report on battery basics is a good refresher course on care and feeding.

A battery is also a chemistry set, and all chemicals must be respected when handled. Our Lift Truck Tips outlines most everything you need to know to keep your facility's safety record respectable. You'd be wise to make this required reading for your staff. As James Kaletta of Safety Management Systems told Modern, OSHA doesn't require daily inspections of the battery charging area, but it's a good idea. So is assigning one employee to complete and initial a daily inspection form, and keeping that form in a logbook before each shift. And so is having the supervisor do a monthly inspection to verify all this is getting done.

This is a good issue to keep handy, not only as a quick reference guide for new warehouse hires, but as a visual aid when your kid asks you to speak at career day. It's proof materials handling jobs have everything: money, cool places, food, even excitement—especially if things don't go right during battery changing and charging.