TGT Target Corp

United Parcel Service Inc. on Wednesday said it expects to hire about 95,000 extra employees for the holidays, the same number as the past two years, in the latest signal that seasonal hiring will remain flat.

Retail hiring this holiday season is forecast to remain unchanged from a year ago, when employment in the sector increased by 738,800 during the final three months of the year, according to Challenger Gray & Christmas. Those job gains were 1.4% lower than the previous year.

"The big change we are seeing, however, is that while seasonal retail jobs remain flat or shrink, there has been a marked increase in seasonal job gains in other sectors. The sector with the biggest increase in holiday hiring in recent years has been transportation and warehousing, as more and more holiday shopping is done online," said John Challenger, the firm's chief executive.

Earlier this week, Target Corp. said it was looking to hire 70,000 seasonal employees across its stores for the period. But it also plans to add 7,500 workers at its distribution and fulfillment centers—up slightly from last year—which ship online orders and send products to stores.

The competition for holiday workers is heating up as retailers like Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are expected to step up recruiting.

For the past few years big retailers have been flinging up warehouses and distribution centers across the country to get their online orders to customers faster.

UPS's proprietary-routing software, Orion, has helped it to shave minutes and miles off drivers' routes. The company has said it plans to expand the roll out of the technology in time for the holiday season.

Challenger Gray & Christmas pointed to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, which show that transportation and warehousing employment increased by a non-seasonally-adjusted 200,500 workers in November and December.

The firm expects UPS and FedEx Corp. will add a combined 150,000 workers this holiday season—flat from what the shipping companies announced last year.

"We continue to move from brick-and-mortar toward click-and-order. But even in the internet era of holiday shopping that means that brick-and-mortar fulfillment facilities need seasonal workers," said Mr. Challenger.

Write to Anne Steele at Anne.Steele@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 14, 2016 11:25 ET (15:25 GMT)

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