Royal Mail Launches Campaign to Recruit 18,000 Temporary Workers for Christmas

LONDON, September 19, 2011 -

• Seasonal workers being sought to help sort the Christmas post
• 18,000 seasonal roles available across the UK
• 15,000 roles in England, 2,000 in Scotland, 1,000 in Wales and 400 in Northern Ireland
• Positions available between mid November and early January 2012

Royal Mail is launching a drive to recruit 18,000 temporary workers to help handle its Christmas mailbag of around two billion items.

Temporary positions across a variety of shifts will be available between mid November and early January 2012. The peak of the additional temporary work will be in December. The seasonal positions will support Royal Mail’s permanent 130,000 postmen and women who sort and deliver the mail all year round, including Christmas which is the busiest time of the year for the postal service.

Helping to sort the post

Around 18,000 people are needed to work in mail and distribution centres across the UK. The recruits will help to sort Christmas cards and packets before they go to around 1,400 delivery offices for postmen and women to take out on their rounds.

In England, Royal Mail will be recruiting around 1,000 people in London, 1,500 each in the North West and Anglia, 2,000 in South East, South West, Thames Valley and the North East and 3,000 in the Midlands.

In Scotland, Royal Mail will be recruiting around 2,000 people with a further 1,000 being sought in Wales and 400 in Northern Ireland.

Dedicated website

Royal Mail has set up a dedicated website for people to apply for the positions - www.royalmail.com/xmasjobs.

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

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.”

For further information contact: James Eadie, Head of PR
Royal Mail Group, +44(0)20-7250-2468, +44(0)7850-757271, james.r.eadie at royalmail.com