UPS plans to hire more than 100,000 holiday workers, steady with a year ago

UPS plans to hire more than 100,000 workers — at higher pay than a year ago — to help handle the holiday rush this season, in line with hiring the previous three years.

As part of a tentative five-year contract agreement with the Teamsters union approved last month that included a bump up in pay and other benefits for part-time and full time workers, seasonal package drivers will get starting hourly pay of $23, while package handlers will get $21 for the holiday period.

That compares with last year’s $21 per hour for drivers and $15.50 for package handlers, according to Matt Lavery, UPS’s director of global sourcing, recruiting and onboarding.

But despite increased pay for the seasonal UPS workers, the job market is still tight, and it’s uncertain how challenging it will be to find workers, Lavery said.

“We do have a good package to offer everybody with an industry-leading pay, but we still haven’t seen those (job) numbers change,” he said. “So we’re hoping and we believe that we are going to get the number of employees. It’s a little uncertain whether it’s going to be easier or not for us at this point.”