These seasonal employees will join UPS’s global workforce that numbers around 460,000, according to the release.
The number of seasonal employees UPS plans to hire this year is about 9% fewer than last year, Reuters reported Wednesday. This is the second consecutive year in which the company has reduced its seasonal hiring.
An article published by UPS in October 2024 said the company was hiring more than 125,000 seasonal workers for that year’s holiday season.
In its 2025 annual report, UPS said it reduced its number of seasonal positions by 15,000 in 2025.
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UPS has trimmed its permanent workforce as well, according to the Reuters report. The company said in January that it would cut as many as 30,000 operational jobs this year. Those cuts are part of UPS’s plan to reduce its shipments for Amazon and focus on more profitable shipments, the report said.
PYMNTS reported in July that UPS’s second-quarter earnings showed that the company’s U.S. average daily package volume declined 3.3% from a year earlier as UPS completed its planned reduction of lower-yielding Amazon business. At the same time, UPS’s revenue per package rose 9.3%, supported by stronger pricing and a more favorable mix of customers.
UPS CEO Carol Tomé said during a July earnings call that the company is attempting to rebuild the economics of parcel delivery around a different formula of less low-return volume, more automation, and a technology layer that makes its physical network visible and adaptable in real time.
Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said in a September blog post that seasonal hiring announcements by retailers “remain thin,” with only a handful of companies publicizing their plans so far.
Challenger, Gray & Christmas predicted in the post that seasonal hiring by retailers will decline to 450,000 during the fourth quarter this year, down from 461,500 during the same period in 2025 and down from 543,100 in Q4 2024.
Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in the post that although retail sales increased 1.2% in August, the biggest retailers are not making large, early hiring commitments.
“Retailers are leaning on automation, existing associates and on-demand pools before hiring net-new seasonal workers,” Challenger said in the post.
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