Companies May Cut Back On Holiday TempsCompanies May Cut Back On Holiday Temps

Consumer confidence and spending levels are shrinking, leading many retailers to consider hiring 20% to 25% fewer holiday workers this year, according to international outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc. Retailers might decide to keep costs low to maximize profits by giving more hours to existing staff, the firm says.

Logistics and transportation companies also are considering hiring fewer holiday staff because fewer packages will be coming in, and because in some cases, efficiencies gained through technology lessens the need to hire temp workers.

UPS usually hires up to 1,000 seasonal workers to sort and route packages via ZIP codes at its Louisville, Ky., sorting plant between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This year, UPS anticipates hiring fewer than 200 temporary workers at the plant because the facility is equipped with automating technology, reducing the number of people needed to move packages. This is the second year in a row that the use of cameras that capture images of a package and a UPS patented smart label that can hold 200 times as much data as a bar code have been able to reduce the amount of extra help needed to handle the influx of holiday packages.

Next year, UPS anticipates being able to handle larger volumes of packages at the Louisville facility because automation lets them get packages in and out to retailers and customers faster. "We can feed volume into Louisville that might have gone to other facilities," a UPS spokesman says. "And we can handle more volume without having to hire more people."