John Lewis and Waitrose are to hire 7,000 extra members of temporary staff this Christmas to help with the festive rush of shoppers.
The roles will be available across all 34 John Lewis shops, where 2,300 people will be hired, and 331 Waitrose stores, where the company is looking to take on 4,700 people.
In the John Lewis sites, temporary roles will include sales and merchandising positions, while Waitrose stores will be looking for supermarket assistants, night shift workers and customer delivery drivers.
In addition, John Lewis and Waitrose will recruit more than 550 permanent full-time driver and warehouse roles across distribution and delivery centres.
As an added incentive, both retailers say they will offer free food and drinks to workers - including temporary staff - from October 4 to December 31.
Should shops be launching huge recruitment drives for Christmas? Let us know your thoughts in the comments
Jobs will start to be advertised on jlpjobs.com and Indeed.com and Google from September 16.
The roles will be put online in phases into October, with a “variety of working hours” available.
The John Lewis Partnership says the recruitment drive is an increase of 2,000 compared to the 5,000 seasonal workers it employed last Christmas.
Nikki Humphrey, people director at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “We know that as the first Christmas after lockdown, customers will want to make it really special and we're throwing everything we can into helping them celebrate - our festive team will have a crucial role to play.
“We’re looking for people who can deliver extraordinary service to help customers get what they need to celebrate.
“We look forward to welcoming people into our team across the country.”
The call for more Christmas staff comes as supermarkets continue to struggle with a shortfall of between 90,000 to 100,000 lorry drivers on the roads.
The lack of workers has led to supply chain issues and empty shelves, with a combination of the coronavirus crisis and Brexit to blame.
Retailers including Tesco and Iceland have been offering starting bonuses of £1,000 to entice new workers, while salaries for lorry drivers have also hugely increased.
Lorry drivers are being offered a salary of up to £53,780 by Waitrose in one of the most surprising high-paid jobs currently available.
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