UPS Is Hiring Almost Twice As Many Holiday Season Workers This Year Compared To A Year Ago

In an announcement on Tuesday, the shipping giant said it will hire 90,000-95,000 seasonal employees, "to support the anticipated holiday surge in package deliveries that will begin in October and continue through January 2015."

This time last year, the company announced it would employ 55,000 temporary workers. But eventually, they were forced to crank that number up to 85,000 temporary.

According to its latest 10-K filed with the SEC, as of December 31, 2013, UPS had about 395,000 employees.

UPS said it expects holiday delivery volume to increase compared to a year ago, when the company found itself overwhelmed by orders leading to some packages ordered for Christmas delivery arriving late.

For some quick perspective on the scale of UPS' seasonal hiring operation, its announcement means the company plans to hire roughly the entire population of cities like Macon, Georgia, Yuma, Arizona, and Brockton, Massachusetts.