Louisville Courier-Journal (Kentucky) (11/17/12) Sheldon Shafer

With about 400 seasonal positions still open, UPS is offering a $150 bonus to current employees who refer temporary holiday help hired to staff its Worldport air hub at Louisville International Airport. The seasonal employees also get the bonus if they stay through Dec. 31. Once hired, they can get another bonus if they refer another temporary worker.

“We have to make sure we are staffed” adequately for the holidays, says UPS spokesman Jeff Wafford. “We wanted to find a way to drum up interest and to get people into interviews. Working through our current employees is one way to do that.” UPS is offering the bonus, in part, because of the competition with other companies for more-qualified seasonal workers, according to Wafford. UPS plans to hire about 55,000 workers nationwide, which is similar to the amount of seasonal employees hired last year. The large majority of the temporary positions are for package handlers but there are a few jobs for drivers and driver helpers and also for a handful of other positions.