Dive Brief:
- UPS has announced its intent to hire roughly 95,000 seasonal employees to help manage the likely increase in shipping volumes starting in November and running through January 2018, a company press release reported last week.
- Schedules available include full- and part-time positions in areas such as package handling, drivers and driver-helpers. UPS boasts that about 35% of those who begin their career as seasonal workers stay with the company, including executives such as CEO David Abney.
- All permanent UPS jobs — including part-time — offer competitive pay and benefits, including healthcare and retirement. Many UPS locations also offer tuition assistance of up to $25,000 to part-time employees in college.
Dive Insight:
Autumn has just begun, but holiday hiring is gearing up for peak season.
Hiring numbers for the 2017 holiday season are higher than ever, with Walmart taking on 5,000 seasonal workers for e-commerce operations; Macy's seeking 18,000 more employees (35% more than last year); XPO Logistics needing 6,000 (20% more than last year), and Radial aiming for 27,000. Target too is increasing hiring, bringing on close to 105,000 workers compared with 77,500 in 2016. Amazon started hiring in early August, seeking a total of 50,000 new employees to staff its multiplying warehouses.
UPS's estimated need for 95,000 extra hands will be spread throughout the many markets it serves, such as in major cities like New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and others. "Large population centers get more deliveries of e-commerce goods and so we have larger facilities there with more jobs – and in most of them the unemployment rates are extremely low," UPS PR Manager Dan McMackin told Supply Chain Dive.
That makes finding new workers harder but could leave room for another round of hiring. In fact, McMackin says the company plans to recruit workers on campuses at upcoming NCAA college football games this fall, as most colleges go on break.
