UPS (UPS) plans to hire about 100,000 part time workers for the 2019 holiday season and this year it’s paying more money, between $14 and $30 an hour.
“We expect another record peak season this year, with daily package deliveries nearly doubling compared to our average 20 million per day,” said UPS chief operating officer Jim Barber.
Joe Brusuelas, RSM chief economist, says “It’s encouraging that we are going to see a boost in temporary hiring around transportation sector which has slowed noticeably in the past six months.”
UPS had the same seasonal hiring goal last year and the company says it slightly exceeded that 100,000 number.
But this year’s holiday shipping season will be a week shorter than last year’s according to the UPS website. It will run from November 25th through January 2nd although some of the seasonal hires will stay on for a few more weeks.
“The big question is will they come through and hire the full quantity of labor estimated by the company,” Brusuelas says.
UPS is expected to provide holiday shipping projections during its Q3 earnings call October 23rd.
From part-time to president
Danelle McCusker Rees started as a seasonal hire in 2002. Today she is UPS’s domestic president of human resources.
“And for me coming from a small town like Johnstown Pennsylvania I’d never imagine these opportunities,” she said.
McCusker Rees has had several different careers at UPS working in business development, communications, and operations.
UPS employs 380,000 people in the United States a third of them, like McCusker Rees, started as seasonal workers.
Although the seasonal hires work roughly two months, UPS says 35% continue to work part time becoming what the company calls permanent part time employees. McCusker Rees says, “One in every three UPSers that we have, has had that exact experience.”
Some are attracted to UPS’s Earn and Learn program which provides up to $5250 a year in tuition reimbursement and a lifetime max of $25,000 for permanent UPS employees.
McCusker Rees says the seasonal hires are eligible for a portion of that money too. UPS on average provides $1300 in tuition reimbursement to seasonal hires.
It’s a good incentive according to McCusker Rees who never thought should we work full time at UPS.
“I can honestly say no, I didn’t realize, I was a college kid that was looking for a position to bring in some holiday cash and also maybe give me some internship credits,” she said. The delivery company appears to have delivered for her.
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Adam Shapiro is co-anchor of Yahoo Finance On the Move.
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