FedEx, UPS, and USPS Ramp Up Hiring for the Holidays
Peak shipping season for holiday packages runs from Black Friday through early January, allowing for the increasing number of returns that occur after Christmas. This leads to three of the most popular US shippers, UPS, FedEX, and USPS, hiring thousands of seasonal workers to fill out their workforce for the rush of 2016
USPS plans on hiring between 35,000 and 40,000 seasonal workers to process the influx of mail. The hiring process has begun and interestingly, the Postal Service reaches out to recent retirees because they have virtually no learning curve. This benefits the Postal Service because they don’t have to spend time and money training the new hires, and the retirees can earn some extra money around the holidays.
FedEx expects to add more than 50,000 employees to handle the holiday volume increase between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Executive vice president Mike Glenn said the four Mondays during the peak season are expected to be among the busiest in company history. Last year more than 325 million shipments were handled during peak.
UPS plans to hire 95,000 temporary employees during the peak holiday season as a means of keeping up with the growing online e-commerce volumes.
Seasonal and part-time positions are often an entry point, with all companies pointing out the fact that seasonal positons can lead to permanent work; UPS said that up to 37% of those hired seasonally in 2015 now have permanent jobs with the company.
