NEW YORK >> Target plans to hire more than 120,000 people for the busy holiday shopping season, a 20 percent increase from last year.

The retailer says the temporary hires will stock store shelves and check people out at the register. In addition, it plans to hire 7,500 people to pack online orders at its warehouses. Target says it will pay workers $12 an hour, a dollar more an hour than last year.

With a strong job market, retailers will likely face a harder time attracting workers for the holidays since workers can be pickier about where they work. Target says it will hold hiring events at stores next month.

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. has more than 1,800 stores around the country.

United Parcel Service Inc. said it plans to hire 100,000 people for the holidays, when the rising volume of online shopping hits its peak. That’s up about 5,000 from last year, when the Atlanta company scrambled after underestimating holiday shipments and wound up spending an extra $125 million to fix delays.

Rival FedEx Corp. plans to hire 55,000 temporary workers, a slight increase over last year, for what it expects to be a record-breaking Christmas season. The Memphis, Tennessee-based company is expanding U.S. ground-delivery operations to six days a week year-round because of the boom in online shopping. FedEx already runs six or seven days a week during the holiday season.