Target bumps holiday hiring 20% over last year.
Competition for help expected to be fierce in the tight job market
NEW YORK » Target plans to hire more than 120,000 people for the busy holiday shopping season, a 20 percent increase from last year.
The retailer says the temporary hires will stock store shelves and check people out at the register. In addition, it plans to hire 7,500 people to pack online orders at itswarehouses. Target says it will pay workers $12 an hour, a dollar more an hour than last year.
With a strong jobmarket, retailers will likely face a harder time attractingworkers for the holidays since workers can be pickier about where theywork. Target says it will hold hiring events at stores next month.
Minneapolis-based Target has more than 1,800 stores around the country.
United Parcel Service said it plans to hire 100,000 people for the holidays, when the rising volume of online shopping hits its peak. That’s up about 5,000 fromlast year, when the Atlanta company scrambled after underestimating holiday shipments andwound up spending an extra $125million to fix delays.
Rival FedEx Corp. plans to hire 55,000 temporary workers, a slight increase over last year, for what it expects to be a recordbreaking Christmas season.
The Memphis, Tennes- see-based company is expanding U.S. ground-delivery operations to six days a week year-round because of the boomin online shopping. FedEx already runs six or seven days a week during the holiday season.