Holidays look brighter for shipping industry

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Maybe it will be a happy holiday season for the shipping industry after all.

Forrester Research is projecting an 8 percent increase in online holiday sales compared with 2008, sending expectations for online spending to $44.7 billion. A recent study also found that 42 percent of consumers will be motivated by shipping offers to buy more online this year than in the past.

That one indicator of economic recovery has shipping companies like Memphis-based FedEx doing a happy holiday jig. FedEx plans on moving more than 50 million packages the week of December 14, historically the company's busiest week of the year.

On December 14 alone, FedEx projects it will move more than 13 million shipments, according to a statement from the company. That's up from 12 million packages on last year's busiest day.

On an average day, roughly 7.5 million packages move through FedEx systems. The company didn't release holiday projections last year, as the nation plunged into recession.

This year, FedEx's Ground unit will add 14,000 additional part time and temporary workers during November and December, reports the Associated Press.

And UPS spokesman Norman Black told the Associated Press that the company expects to hire about 50,000 seasonal workers in the U.S. this year. It hired 60,000 seasonal workers in 2007, and didn't release statistics in 2008.