9,000 Christmas jobs still unfilled as demand for seasonal staff soars

A new study from job search engine Adzuna.co.uk has revealed over 9,000 Christmas jobs are still available in the UK, an impressive 50% increase on last year, as employers struggle to staff up in advance of the annual festive rush.

The big high street and online retailers continue to stock up on extra staff this winter, amounting to thousands of temporary, part-time roles flooding the market. Despite drops in recruitment figures for Sainsbury’s, Debenhams and other major names in festive hiring, new Christmas recruiters in the top 10 and many smaller organisations seeking additional support for the festive season combine to boost the 2014 opportunities.

Key Christmas Jobs Data:

The largest proportion of this year’s vacancies  fall in the sales, logistics and retail sectors. As of the 3rd November 2014 there are still 1,066 sales, 848 warehouse, & 761 retail vacancies waiting to be filled around the country.

Topping the Christmas recruitment charts once again this year are the Royal Mail, Amazon and Sainsbury’s, with over 45,000 positions predicted between these three alone.¹

London and the South East continue to be vacancy hot-spots, playing host to a third (33%) of the available roles in the UK, with opportunities across the South outstripping those in the Capital for the first time. The lowest number of Christmas jobs are located in Wales and Northern Ireland, with just 3.5% of the vacancies based in these two regions.

This Christmas period brings with it some extremely lucrative opportunities, as on-call Doctors and Christmas Day Drivers could demand an impressive £70 per hour this December. At the other end of the spectrum, talented gift wrappers and tireless customer service superstars remain among the worst paid, scraping by on minimum wage.

Demand for Santa and his helpers is on the rise, with employers around the UK hunting for 350 jolly Santas and opportunities 247 Elves still open. Competition for seasonal support roles is also hotting up, as recruiters increasingly call for additional elven talents, from train driving elves to elves with technical or computing skills.

Those looking for something  even more unique this Christmas can choose from a range of weird and wonderful vacancies this festive season. Specialist roles for as “Apprentice Turkey Chefs” “Christmas Present Selectors” and “Christmas Party Table Card Designers” are all on offer this year.

Andrew Hunter, Co-Founder of Adzuna, commented, “The Year-on-Year decrease in temporary, part-time vacancies  offered by some of the major Christmas recruiters this year speaks of the increasing automation of roles. Although it certainly hasn’t impacted overall festive recruitment numbers, as new players like delivery firm Yodel and a wealth of smaller employers serve to plug the gap.”

Currently Available Top Christmas Jobs by Sector:

Overall Top 10 Christmas Employers*:

*Note that these numbers are the total number additional staff these companies have been hiring for  this Christmas.

This is not the total number of live current vacancies at these companies.

** Christmas recruitment figures based on 2013 intake.

Best Paying Xmas Jobs:

Worst Paying Xmas Jobs:

Weird and Wonderful Christmas 2014 Jobs:

Top Regions for Christmas Jobs:

www.adzuna.co.uk