News and Updates

[Updated October 29, 2025]

This article has been updated to reflect current market data, trends, and best practices for holiday workforce planning. It was originally published on September 22, 2023.

The holiday season remains busy and intense. With online orders climbing and delivery windows shrinking, supply chains are under more pressure than ever. In 2024, more than 22.4 billion packages shipped across the U.S, and that number is only expected to climb. By the end of 2025, global shipping volume is projected to hit 407 billion packages, part of a trend that’s pushing logistics vendors’ capacity to their limits.

To meet this kind of demand, companies are turning to temporary holiday staffing as a reliable, cost-effective solution.

Meeting Peak Demand with Scalable Talent

End-of-year spikes in order volume aren’t something most businesses can—or should—handle with their permanent staff alone. provide flexibility to scale up quickly, support fulfillment, and prevent bottlenecks across your supply chain.

This type of workforce strategy allows companies to remain agile without increasing long-term labor costs or overloading their full-time employees.

Reducing Overtime and Burnout Risks

Overreliance on overtime is a fast track to employee fatigue and costly payroll spikes. Temporary holiday staffing eases the pressure by spreading out the workload during the busiest weeks of the year. When you balance demand with seasonal support, your core team can stay focused, energized, and more likely to stick around post-peak.

Keeping Customer Experience On Track

Holiday shoppers expect on-time delivery, order accuracy, and fat resolution if anything goes wrong. Temporary workers help maintain service quality by supporting order processing, shipping, returns, and customer support functions.

Bringing in extra hands at the right time helps companies avoid delays, reduce errors, and protect customer satisfaction when it matters most.

Looking further ahead? For more information on how automation supports post-holiday operations, see our guide on Returns Season Preparedness.

Creating Short-Term Jobs with Long-Term Value

Seasonal roles aren’t just a win for employers. Many workers take on temporary jobs to earn extra income or build experience in logistics, retail, or customer service. For businesses, it’s an opportunity to identify standout talent who could grow into long-term roles after the holiday season ends.

Temporary Holiday Staffing is Now a Competitive Advantage

According to a 2025 Warehouse Labor Market Report by Integrity Staffing Solutions, competition for hourly warehouse talent is intensifying. Between December 2024 and April 2025, more than 320,000 logistics job openings were posted in the U.S. alone, with markets like Texas, California, and Florida facing the highest pressure to hire.

The report notes that although the national median advertised wage has reached $19.05/hour, competitive pay alone isn’t enough. More employers are adopting hybrid staffing models that combine full-time staff with flexible, temporary labor, especially during seasonal surges. These shifts highlight a growing need for agility (compared to availability) in workforce planning.

For companies preparing for the end of Q4, this confirms a broader trend: temporary holiday staffing isn’t just a short-term fix, but a long-term labor strategy.

How Major Companies are Approaching the End of 2025

USPS plans to hire over 14,000 seasonal employees this year. Amazon recently announced it will add more than 250,000 U.S.-based workers to meet peak holiday demand. While not every company needs that kind of scale, there’s value in learning from how these industry leaders approach seasonal workforce planning.

Strategies for Smarter Seasonal Hiring

Partner with Logistics Staffing Agencies

Third-party staffing partners help streamline recruitment by sourcing, screening, and onboarding qualified talent. They also handle compliance, payroll, and time tracking, freeing up internal HR teams to focus on performance and productivity.

Offer Temp-to-Perm Potential

Making it clear that strong seasonal performers may be considered for long-term roles can help attract more motivated candidates. Even if full-time roles are limited, transparency and recognition go a long way in improving retention and morale.

Combine People with Process and Automation

Many businesses are investing in automation to support seasonal peaks (like a lot.) Temporary staff are most effective when supported by tools that streamline the work. Automation plays a critical role when integrated thoughtfully through reducing errors, shortened training time, and overall throughput during high-pressure periods.

Tools like the Chameleon® SLAM solution, our flexible parcel sorting system, offer real-time barcode recognition, on-the-fly weighing, and labeling in one configurable unit. It’s designed for facilities that need fast deployment without the cost and footprint of traditional conveyor systems, making it ideal for seasonal scale-ups.

For operations focused on order accuracy and speed, LightSort® pick-and-put solution bring intuitive, light-directed technology to the floor. Using wireless ring scanners and configurable workflows, this system guides operators through pick and sort tasks with minimal training. It’s low-cost, modular setup supports a wide range of configurations (totes, racks, shelving) and works seamlessly across multiple workstations.

By combining temporary holiday staffing with tools like Chameleon and LightSort, companies create a more efficient and agile fulfillment process that scales smoothly with demand.

Why Temporary Holiday Staffing Remains Essential

For companies that rely on timely fulfillment and customer service, temporary holiday staffing is more than an emergency strategy. It enables scale, improves operations, and protects employee experience during the most critical quarter of the year.

If your team is planning for peak season, now is the time to lock in your staffing plan. With the right talent and tools in place, you can move through Q4 with confidence and finish strong.