We all remember last Christmas when thousands of people were disappointed Christmas morning. Why? Packages they’d ordered online didn’t make it to their homes in time. FedEx (FDX) and UPS (UPS) were overwhelmed with orders and were forced to apologize to consumers.

This year, we’re expected to shop even more than last. UPS’s internal forecasts predict e-commerce will grow between 12-15% in 2014.

The company says its learned it's lesson from last year. “The consumer exceeded I think everybody’s expectations in terms of what happened with e-commerce so we’re certainly much much better prepared for that; we’re honed in on that,” said Alan Gershenhorn, Chief Commercial Officer at UPS. UPS has invested some $500 million in new infrastructure ahead of the holiday. The Wall Street Journal reports the company is also asking retailers to figure out the best way to handle increased orders – including asking stores to offer sales earlier in the season.

UPS’s prep also includes a surge in hiring – up to 95,000 people this year, an 11% jump from last year.

FedEx is boosting hiring as well – the company announced it will bring on 50,000 seasonal workers, a 25% jump from 2013.

But shippers aren’t the only companies announcing they’ll hire more people for the holidays. Retailers have announced their plans – and there are increases across the board.

Wal-Mart (WMT) will hire 60,000 people, a 10% jump. Macy’s (M) will boost hiring by 3.5% to 86,000 seasonal workers. Kohl’s (KSS) is hiring 67,000, a 15% jump. In fact, the only major retailer so far that hasn’t announced it will hire more workers than last year is Target (TGT) – but that could be because traffic in Target stores has been down following the hack that hit the retailer ahead of the 2013 holiday season.

Not only are companies announcing more hires – they’re announcing them earlier in the season – another sign that the labor market is improving, as evidenced by Friday’s jobs report which showed the unemployment rate in September fell to 5.9% for the first time since 2008.

“I think it’s a sign that companies recognize that in this tight labor market they’ve got to start early in terms of hiring if they’re going to be able to get the workers that they want and need,” said Michelle Girard, Chief Economist at RBS.

In the September jobs report, there were 7 million workers employed part time for economic reasons (such as not being able to find a fulltime job) and some 19.5 million who were working part time by choice.

The only remaining question is whether these seasonal hires will turn into more lasting employment. After the 2013 holiday season, Macy’s announced it would lay off 2,500 employees despite strong holiday sales.

This year, Girard said we won’t know how likely it is that these seasonal hires will turn permanent until holiday sales numbers come in in early 2015.

The National Retail Federation has not released its prediction for the 2014 holiday season yet – look for that next week.