NEW YORK, United States — Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday it would hire more than 120,000 seasonal employees across its fulfilment centres, sortation centres and customer service sites in the United States in the upcoming holiday season.

More than 14,000 seasonal positions were transitioned to regular, full-time roles after the holidays last year, and the company expects to increase that number this year, Amazon said.

Rival US retailers have taken a cautious view of the holiday selling season this year. Target Corp and Kohl's Corp have said they plan to hire fewer temporary workers or to keep seasonal employment levels little changed this holiday season.

Macy's Inc, which operates the namesake Macy's and Bloomingdale's department store chains, said in September, it would hire 83,000 temporary workers for the holiday quarter, a 2 percent decline from last year.

The US National Retail Federation earlier this month forecast a 3.6 percent rise in holiday sales this year, with online sales expected to climb 7 percent to 10 percent.

US brick-and-mortar retailers' biggest challenge in recent years has been tackling the growth of online retailers, especially Amazon, which offer the same products at lower prices and have made shopping more convenient.

They are also keeping sales expectations and inventories low - and hiring light - ahead of the holiday season to avoid a repeat of last year, when unusually warm weather hit sales and piled up unsold goods.

By Subrat Patnaik and Abhijith Ganapavaram; editor: Sriraj Kalluvila.