J Sainsbury : 11,500 Christmas jobs available across Sainsbury’s and Argos

Sainsbury's and Argos are seeking 11,500 temporary colleagues to help deliver the best service for customers during the busy Black Friday and Christmas periods.

5,500 jobs are available at Sainsbury's and 6,000 are available at Argos.

In addition, Sainsbury's and Argos are also offering extra hours to existing colleagues who may want extra work in the run up to Christmas.

Up to 5,500 seasonal colleagues will be brought in to Sainsbury's supermarkets to ensure customers can find everything they need for their Christmas celebrations, whether shopping in store or online. Roles range from café and counter colleagues to online assistants, drivers and cyclists to help deliver festive orders to customers' doorsteps.

Sainsbury's jobs will be contracted for up to three months with an average of 15 contracted hours per week.

Argos is looking for 5,000 customer advisors and stock assistants to help meet customer demand for this year's must-have Black Friday and Christmas gifts.

The retailer is also seeking 1,000 delivery drivers to serve customers who want their orders delivered quickly and efficiently to their homes during this busy time of year. Fast Track delivery, which can deliver orders in as little as four hours, is a key point of differentiation for Argos and the retailer expects a double-digit increase in Fast Track orders this December alone.

Argos aims to offer the vast majority of colleagues 20 hours per week contracts, with fewer contracted hours available on request.

Angie Risley, Group HR Director said: 'Our customers shop with us for great quality products at low prices and because they trust us to give them brilliant service throughout the year. Christmas is an extra special time and it's our mission to make sure that customers can easily get everything they want in our stores and online.

'Black Friday and Christmas are busy times in retail and it's really exciting to work with us during the festive period. Working at Sainsbury's you could be serving customers in our stores or providing welcome refreshment in our cafes. At Argos you could be helping out in-store or delivering parcels direct to people's homes. If you enjoy helping people, like working in a team with friendly, enthusiastic colleagues and want to learn new skills, then this is the right job for you.'

Some seasonal roles across both Sainsbury's and Argos have the potential to become permanent, where vacancies exist.

Interested candidates can apply for all roles at https://sainsburys.jobs/ChristmasColleague/ and www.argos.careers/xmas.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Available Sainsbury's store roles include:

• Food services assistants, supporting the café or helping on the meat, fish or deli counters
• General merchandise and clothing assistants
• Trading assistants, supporting shelf replenishment, including night shifts
• Services assistants, helping out in the store back offices, checkout or petrol station
• Online assistants, drivers and cyclists to help deliver festive orders to customers' homes.

Sainsbury's colleague benefits include competitive rates of pay, free uniform, cycle to work scheme and special offers on gym memberships, restaurants, holidays, retail vouchers and more.

The Argos temporary vacancies include 330 roles in its Republic of Ireland stores. Driver vacancies are available in the UK only.

New Argos team members will benefit from competitive hourly rates, a variety of shifts, a fun and friendly team culture and the chance to develop new skills through training.

Sainsbury's Group employs more than 185,000 colleagues across the UK and Republic of Ireland.