FedEx to hire 20,000 to handle holiday business
Memphis Business Journal by Andy Ashby, Staff writer
Date: Monday, October 24, 2011, 10:51am CDT
- Andy Ashby
- Staff writer - Memphis Business Journal
FedEx Corp. will hire 20,000 seasonal employees to help the company handle its busiest holiday season yet.
The Memphis-based transportation company expects to move more than 17 million shipments, almost double its daily average volume on Dec. 12, the projected busiest day in company history. In 2010, the company’s busiest day was Dec. 13, with 15.6 million shipments.
FedEx (NYSE: FDX) says the 10 percent year-over-year increase will be driven by FedEx SmartPost, a residential shipping service designed for online and catalog retailers, as well as expected increased volume at FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery.
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, FedEx forecasts more than 260 million shipments to move through its worldwide shipping networks. This would be a 12 percent increase for the holiday season over last year when 232 million shipments were processed.
“As e-commerce continues to grow and demand increases with more customers shopping and conducting their business online, FedEx SmartPost is poised to handle the increase in shipments,” Fred Smith, chairman, president and CEO of FedEx said in a statement. “More than 290,000 FedEx team members also stand ready to deliver the holidays and enable commerce around the globe.”
Holiday sales are expected to grow 2.8 percent during November and December to $465.6 billion, according to theNational Retail Federation. This is higher than the average increase of 2.6 percent over the last 10 years.
The NRF also predicts that 46.7 percent of shoppers will buy online as compared to 43.9 percent in 2010. Holiday online shopping is expected to increase by 12 percent during the 2011 season, according to eMarketer.
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