(Bloomberg News circulated the following story on October 8.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Union Pacific plans to hire as many as 3,000 employees next year after adding 1,000 through the end of this year as shipments rise and workers retire, Chief Executive Richard Davidson said.
The largest U.S. railroad’s 2004 hiring target is between 2,000 and 3,000 workers, primarily to run trains, Davidson told Bloomberg News. The company is adding about 600 workers this quarter after taking on 400 last quarter.
The Omaha, Neb.-based railroad, with about 46,000 employees, needs conductors and engineers because the number of shipments has climbed since mid-August, reaching almost 190,000 loads in the last week of September, Davidson said. A 2001 federal law that let some rail workers retire with full benefits at age 62 has reduced the train crew ranks and led to new hiring, he said.
“We are hiring now because we played it close to the vest on hiring earlier this year,” Davidson said. “We have high levels of attrition, and we have a graying work force.”
Union Pacific reiterated a forecast for third-quarter earnings of $1.10 a share. That would be a decline from the $1.19 a share earned in last year’s third quarter, excluding gains from an asset sale and a tax settlement.
Davidson said possible declines in chemical shipping may be offset by rising coal shipments next year, especially if the weather in Texas, which was unseasonably mild in 2002, returns to normal.