An average 28,000 temporary workers will be hired per week between now and Christmas according to multi-brand recruitment organisation, The Cordant Group,'s own internal vacancy figures, as companies prepare for the seasonal rush. This is an increase of 8,000 a week compared to The Cordant Group's number of average weekly temporary job vacancies.
With the British Retail Consortium describing retail sales as 'encouraging in the run-up to Christmas,' - up by 2.6% in October compared to last year - companies are turning to temporary workers to help meet an anticipated demand on the high street this season.
In particular, The Cordant Group is seeing a demand for more industrial workers (warehouse operatives, packers and drivers ) and back-office personnel (including call centre operators) as figures, such as from Internet tracking specialists IMRG , anticipate shoppers will spend a record £10.8 billion online in December.
Within Prime Time Recruitment alone, one of the recruitment organisations owned by The Cordant Group, over 200 temporary call centre operators will be needed between now and the end of the year, especially to work evenings, to support the flurry of Christmas orders.
Whilst on the permanent roles, Prime Time Recruitment is getting requests from UK companies for more multi-lingual call centre operators as they see a rise in online sales from overseas customers.
Phillip Ullmann, CEO of The Cordant Group, said, " As we see signs of the economy picking up and statistics predicting strong consumer spending this Christmas, we expect companies within retail and the retail supply chain to need an even higher number of temporary workers compared to last year, between now and the New Year.
"Temporary workers are an invaluable asset to our workforce. Both companies and employees enjoy the benefit of flexible working, which can help in busy times such as Christmas, as well as provide workers with a possible stepping stone into a permanent role.
"However, when hiring temporary workers companies should ensure that they're aware of temporary agency labour legislation such as the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), which allows them some of the same rights as a permanent worker after 12 weeks of employment in the role, communicate these rights to temporary staff and offer incentives to work over the festive period. This will ensure all parties enjoy all the benefits temporary working can offer."