Sainsbury's to recruit 18,000 Christmas workers

Sainsbury's has announced it is looking to recruit 18,000 temporary workers to support the supermarket through the festive season.

The company said it was hiring workers for 15,000 roles at Sainsbury's, 2,000 at Argos and 1,000 in its logistics division which runs its warehouses.

Sainsbury's said new recruits would be paid £10.25 an hour, with London-based staff getting £11.30.

Seasonal workers will also receive free food during shifts and a discount card.

The jobs available include roles serving customers, stocking shelves, and packing and delivering online orders on fixed-term contracts lasting between three and 12 weeks up until 7 January 2023.

Those working in Sainsbury's warehouses will ensure that products arrive at supermarkets around the country.

Angie Risley, Sainsbury's group HR director, said the festive season would be "busy", with more customers doing their shopping in stores.

"This investment in service will ensure customers can find whatever they need to celebrate this year easily and conveniently," she added.

"Our new higher base rate [of pay], colleague discount and free food during shifts ensures colleagues will be well-rewarded for their hard work."

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Sainsbury's rival Tesco has also announced plans to recruit 15,000 extra staff for Christmas, while Morrisons wants to hire 3,500 temporary staff and Boots is recruiting 6,500 Christmas customer assistant roles.

The UK currently has record levels of job vacancies across all industries in the UK, with recent figures showing roles available rose above one million in the three months to August.

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

The British Chambers of Commerce has previously 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".

Employers have been seen offering higher pay deals in order to attract workers, partly feeding in to rising costs seen across the business and prices going up for customers.