Hiring
UPS says it is hiring 100,000 seasonal employees for the 2026 holiday shipping season, a smaller target than the Atlanta-based carrier set two years ago.
In an October 7 announcement, UPS said it is hiring the seasonal workers “in hundreds of locations nationwide, offering competitive pay, flexible shifts that fit various schedules and a path to a permanent job.” The company said many applicants “can receive a job offer in less than 7 minutes.” Applications are taken at jobs-ups.com.
The release did not list pay rates, job categories or how the 100,000 positions are distributed by state or metro area, including Georgia.
How the target compares
UPS sought more than 100,000 seasonal workers in 2023 and set a goal of more than 125,000 in 2024, according to its own announcements. The company did not publish a seasonal hiring target in 2025.
In its 2025 annual report, UPS said it “reduced our operational workforce by approximately 48,000 positions, including 15,000 fewer seasonal positions, and closed daily operations at 93 leased and owned buildings during 2025.” In the first half of 2026, the company closed 45 more buildings, according to its quarterly filing. It also recorded about $1.1 billion in separation costs tied to a voluntary buyout program for drivers.
In July, UPS said it had completed the planned reduction of its Amazon delivery volume, along with related network changes.
A cautious season across industries
The UPS announcement comes as forecasters expect restrained holiday staffing. Challenger, Gray & Christmas projected on September 23 that retailers would add 450,000 jobs in the fourth quarter, compared with 461,500 in the same quarter of 2025. Challenger said the 2025 total was the smallest seasonal gain since 2008. At that time, Challenger noted that UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service had not yet released 2026 targets.
“The traditional seasonal spike in shipping jobs has been dulled, and every year that shift looks a little more permanent,” Andy Challenger of Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in that forecast, pointing to AI, robotics and automation in warehousing.
Why it matters
For job seekers, the announcement opens a large pool of short-term positions, and UPS describes them as a possible route to permanent work. For the broader labor market, the 100,000 figure is a hiring plan, not a count of workers hired, and it comes from an Atlanta-headquartered employer that has spent the past two years shrinking its operational workforce.
What to watch: whether FedEx and the Postal Service announce seasonal targets, and how UPS’s fourth-quarter results describe holiday staffing.
Sources
- UPS, “UPS Scales Seasonal Workforce, Eyes Ninth Consecutive Peak Season of Industry-Leading On-Time Performance,” October 7, 2026. https://about.ups.com/us/en/newsroom/press-releases/customer-first/ups-scales-seasonal-workforce–eyes-ninth-consecutive-peak-seaso.html
- UPS, “UPS Recruits 100,000 Seasonal Workers For The 2023 Holiday Season,” September 26, 2023. https://about.ups.com/us/en/newsroom/press-releases/people-led/ups-recruits-100-000-seasonal-workers-for-the-2023-holiday-seaso.html
- UPS, Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (workforce and building reductions). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1090727/000162828026008432/ups-20251231.htm
- UPS, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1090727/000162828026053249/ups-20260630.htm
- UPS, second-quarter 2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), July 28, 2026. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1090727/000162828026049912/exhibit991-earningspressre.htm
- Challenger, Gray & Christmas, “2026 Holiday Hiring Outlook: After Lowest Season Since 2008, Will Retailers Stock Up on Workers?” September 23, 2026. https://www.challengergray.com/blog/2026-holiday-hiring-outlook-after-lowest-season-since-2008-will-retailers-stock-up-on-workers/
Featured photo: A UPS package car in Beech Grove, Indiana. Representative image of UPS delivery operations; not a specific location in the hiring announcement. Photo: deathpallie325, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped from the original.
