UPS, Kohl’s, Walmart each plan to add tens of thousands of temp jobs

NEW YORK — UPS will hire up to 95,000. Kohl’s plans to take on 67,000 and FedEx 50,000. Walmart will add 60,000.

One after the other, a flurry of major U.S. retail and transportation companies announced sharp increases this week in the number of temporary workers they plan to hire for the holiday season. Collectively, such hiring could reach its highest point this year for stores since 1999, when the economy was roaring and the Great Recession was still eight years away.

Credit the combination of a strengthening economy and optimism about consumer spending. Stores have determined that they’ll need more temporary help for the holiday season, which accounts for 20 percent of the retail industry’s annual sales.

Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc., a global outplacement consultancy, predicts retailers will add more than 800,000 seasonal workers for the October-December period. Such hiring last topped that figure in 1999, when stores added 849,500 temporary workers.

“The last two years saw holiday hiring return to pre-recession levels,” said John Challenger, CEO of the Chicago-based outplacement firm. “This year, we could see hiring return to levels not seen since the height of the dot-com boom. … There are more people who are surer about their spending.”