Royal Mail seeks 18,000 workers for run-up to Christmas

Royal Mail is launching a recruitment drive to hire 18,000 temporary workers to help cope with the surge in volumes ahead of the festive season. The company said it will be offering 15,000 roles in England, 2,000 in Scotland, 1,000 in Wales and 400 in Northern Ireland between mid-November and early January.

Backing up the 130,000 permanent processing and delivery staff at Royal Mail, the temporary staff will help process the Christmas mailbag of around two billion mailpieces.

Royal Mail’s managing director of operations and modernisation, Mark Higson, said: “Christmas is the busiest time of the year for Royal Mail and we plan all year round to help ensure we deliver the best possible service to our customers. On peak days, the volume of cards, letters and packets we handle is around double the 62 million items we deal with on an average day.”

Last year, more than 70,000 people applied to work for Royal Mail over the festive period.

The company has set up a dedicated website for people to apply for this year’s vacancies – royalmail.com/xmasjobs.