Sainsbury’s is to boost its workforce and recruit up to 20,000 staff in the lead up to Christmas and New Year, with some jobs to be retained.
At least 1,000 of the seasonal staff will be kept on at the supermarket, which has already announced it is to create 2,300 further jobs in the north of England and Scotland by next summer.
Sainsbury’s said almost 23 million shoppers visited its stores in the week before Christmas last year, when 12,000 additional seasonal staff joined its workforce.
Sainsbury's, which currently has 817 outlets and employs 150,000 people, has continued the bullish trend for supermarkets continuing to hire in the recession - last week, Tesco added 800 Scottish jobs to its financial services arm while Morrisons has pledged to employ 7,000 people this year.
Helen Webb, Sainsbury's director of retail human resources, said: "Last year nearly 23m shoppers visited Sainsbury's stores in the week before Christmas and the huge number of customers means that our in-store colleagues always have something different to do."
The upmarket retailer also said its seasonal staff will also be able to apply for its new "Try before you buy" initiative, under which successful applicants will get a year-long training programme with 100 positions available for both seasonal and existing staff who have three A-levels or equivalent qualifications.
