UPS sees holidays slightly busier this year

NEW YORK (Reuters) - United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) said on Monday that it would handle more packages during this year's holiday season than it did last year.

UPS will deliver about 400 million packages worldwide between Thanksgiving on November 26 and Christmas, up "slightly" from the 2008 holiday season, the world's largest package delivery service said.

On its peak day of December 21, the company anticipates handling 22 million packages, which is an increase of 40 percent over its normal daily business.

It will hire 50,000 temporary workers to handle the seasonal spike in volume, Atlanta-based UPS said.

UPS' smaller rival, FedEx Corp (FDX.N), last week reported that it anticipates shipping more than 13 million packages on its peak day of December 14, about 1 million more than it shipped on last year's peak day. On an average day, FedEx ships about 7.5 million packages.

FedEx, based in Memphis, will hire 14,000 additional part-time and temporary holiday season workers.

Both UPS and FedEx are considered indicators of U.S. economic activity because their business booms and cools with the broader economy.

UPS declined to disclose its year-ago peak day volume number, which complicates any comparison between the rivals based on their holiday business projections.

But in general, FedEx is growing faster than UPS, both because it is starting from a smaller base and because as FedEx aggressively expands its ground operations it is taking business away from UPS, said Edward Jones analyst Dan Ortwerth.

"FedEx is not done taking marketshare away from UPS and we see differences quarter after quarter that are the result of that marketshare bleed," said Ortwerth.

"UPS is very conservative, very disciplined. FedEx' management tends to be the trendsetter, so you get more volatility, but you get more growth," said Ortwerth, who rates both companies a "buy."

(Reporting by Helen Chernikoff; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)