UPS Still Short 60,000 Seasonal Workers for The Holiday Season

In September, UPS announced the company aims to hire 100,000 seasonal workers to help the carrier manage the upcoming busy holiday season.

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Other logistics operators like FedEx (90K), Amazon (150K), and the US Postal Service (40K) are also on a major hiring spree, and Walmart started today with a big jobs push to shore up its logistics operations as well.

But apparently, UPS is still way behind in its goal to fill the needed seasonal positions as the carrier will go on a three-day hiring blitz tomorrow, Thursday, November 4, 2021.

UPS will hold virtual and in-person job fairs at its annual ‘UPS Brown Friday’ hiring event at company locations nationwide starting tomorrow through Saturday.

On its ‘UPS Brown Friday‘ hiring website, the carrier also encourages job seekers to apply online now, and they could receive a job offer in 30 minutes or less for some roles. In other words, the company is ready to hire anyone ‘on the spot’ that meets their eligibility requirements.

In addition, UPS is offering $200 to current employees for every eligible job referral they submit.

While hiring events and job fairs, and even spiffs to current employees are typical promotional pushes to staff up, it seems 60,000 workers is a huge hole for the company to fill.

But It’s Not Just UPS

With people quitting jobs at record levels, now being dubbed the ‘Great Resignation,” and job openings more plentiful than ever — the logistics sector’s biggest worry may not be physical resources such as facilities and delivery vehicles to handle this year’s peak season — but labor to handle and deliver packages.

“I’ve never seen a market like this,” said Matt Lavery to the AP. He is UPS’ Corporate Talent Acquisition Manager who has 24 years of experience on the staffing side with the carrier. “Normally when you’re talking about people coming off unemployment benefits, you see surges in candidates. We’re not seeing those.”

2020 was a peak season full of delivery challenges due to COVID-19 restrictions and safety measures. Even in areas where local restrictions for retailers were loosened, many people stayed home and shopped online.

Last year, the industry didn’t seem prepared to handle the rush, with carriers like UPS and FedEx even throttling the intake of packages to avoid a collapse of their logistics networks after Black Friday.

Everyone in the industry learned from 2020, and billions have been spent to beef up physical resources to handle another big peak season.

But, a worker shortage may end up creating another challenge in 2021 as UPS and others are desperate to hire anyone that can help them handle packages.