Asda to hire 15,000 workers ahead of Christmas

Asda has announced plans to recruit 15,000 extra staff for Christmas and says it is confident it can fill the roles amid record high job vacancies.

The supermarket group said most of the temporary jobs would be based at its stores.

Asda is seeking 500 workers for its depots and 1,500 people for home delivery over the festive period.

Recent figures showed that job vacancies in the UK rose above one million in the three months to August.

Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that there were 83,000 vacancies in the retail sector alone during that period.

Asda is among a number of retailers seeking to hire seasonal workers. M&S wants to hire 12,000 temporary staff for Christmas while Boots is recruiting 5,500 workers.

Online retail giant Amazon is offering one-off bonuses of up to £3,000 to attract staff for Christmas. It is searching for 20,000 workers across its UK network.

Domino's Pizza also recently announced it was looking to hire 8,000 drivers in the UK and Ireland for the busy festive season.

A spokesman for Asda said the supermarket was confident it would find people to take the temporary jobs. He said the 15,000 figure was "comparable with the figure we have recruited in prior years".

He said Asda expected students to apply for the roles as well as people with children because many of the jobs offer flexible hours.

Last month, the British Chambers of Commerce said that Brexit and Covid had driven a deep-seated decline in the supply of labour, adding that the UK was facing an "acute hiring crisis".