Marks & Spencer has become the latest retailer to announce its recruitment plans for the festive period.
The retailer is looking to hire 10,000 customer assistants to work in its food and clothing & home stores over the festive period. The number of vacancies is a more than 40% increase on last year, which M&S said reflected the additional investment it is making in customer service.
Sacha Berendji, Operations Director at M&S, commented: “Our fantastic store colleagues play such a big part in delivering the magic of M&S at Christmas to our customers. And this year we’re recruiting even more colleagues to ensure there’s always someone on hand to offer support and recommendations.”
In August, M&S raised its profit outlook on the back of strong trading, and last month it rejoined the prestigious FTSE 100 stock market index after a four-year hiatus.
Last week, Sainsbury’s announced that it was recruiting 22,000 temporary workers for Christmas, a 22% increase on last year. Tesco said it would take on 30,000 extra staff, the same as the previous year.
Last week, Kantar noted that the unusually warm September and early October weather had delayed early sales of Christmas food.
