Recession Signs Flash at Center of US Boom-Bust Warehouse Mecca (3)

Southern California’s Inland Empire, the warehousing mecca that’s home to Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc. facilities, is showing signs of trouble.

Just last year, the region was hiring workers faster than California and the rest of the US — emerging as a top beneficiary from the supply-chain turmoil that clogged warehouses and led to record imports through North America’s largest port complex near Los Angeles.

Now, the gush of cargo that once flowed through the 27,000-square-mile area, stretching from east Los Angeles to the Nevada and Arizona borders, has dwindled to almost three-year lows and jobs are harder to come by.

It’s an ...