UPS Looking for Holiday Season Workers

The company says the last few months of the year are always busy, but the 2013 holiday season will be a little extra-hectic.

That’s because there are 26 shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but only 17 shipping days between the two.

That’s the most compressed the calendar has been in more than a decade.

An audio version of this story.

“Yes, we’re going to make sure we get those packages to you on time, but we want to make sure folks also know that the season is shorter this year, so make sure you actually ship a little sooner,” says UPS spokesman Tyre Sperling.

UPS says it needs drivers, helpers and package handlers between now and New Year’s Day.

Sperling says in 2012, about 2,500 seasonal workers were hired in metro Atlanta and he’s guessing it will be about the same this year.

Some of the temp workers may be offered full-time positions in 2014.

“Generally speaking, if someone comes in and does a really great job, you know, we wouldn’t want to get rid of them.  So we typically try to keep people on, those that we can,” says Sperling.

UPS predicts December 16 will be the peak day for pickups, with nearly 35-million items sent across the globe that day.