Part-time employees are a critical part of our workforce -- 47 percent of our employees hold part-time positions. The nature of the package delivery business -- periodic bursts of activity throughout the day -- requires carriers like UPS to use part-time employees. While meeting the needs of the company, our part-time jobs also meet the needs of thousands of people, like students, retirees and others who want flexible hours, competitive wages and benefits.

Managing turnover in a large part-time workforce is a challenge industry-wide, and UPS shares that challenge. In 2006, turnover in our part-time workforce totaled 59 percent. However, it is also true that our average part-time employee in the U.S. is with us for more than three years before pursuing full-time opportunities within the company or pursuing opportunities elsewhere.

In order to address turnover in key locations, we provide education and development opportunities for our people. We offer a wide range of tuition assistance programs to help us recruit and retain college students. In the U.S., college students made up more than 55.2 percent of our new part-time hires in 2006. It's an ideal match -- we pay for a significant amount of their college tuition plus an hourly wage and full benefits. Reducing turnover reduces hiring and training costs significantly, creating a worthwhile return on our tuition assistance investment.

The UPS Earn and Learn Program

Since it began in 1999, the UPS Earn and Learn program has provided over US$96 million in tuition assistance for nearly 74,000 employees to help pay for their college education. This program is available at 85 UPS locations in the U.S.

Learn More About the UPS Earn and Learn Program

Metropolitan College

A unique partnership between UPS and the state of Kentucky, Metropolitan College offers people the opportunity to pursue their college education for free while also working for UPS. Since the program's inception in 1998 in Louisville, 10,833 employees have enrolled in Metro College. In 2006, 2,374 employees were enrolled.

Learn more about Metropolitan College

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