80,000 apply for just 12,000 jobs at Royal Mail over Christmas

The Royal Mail has received more than 80,000 applications for 18,000 Christmas jobs – 10,000 more than last year. About 2,000 people are being recruited in Scotland, but the Royal Mail said they are still looking for more seasonal workers in areas including Edinburgh, Watford, Peterborough, Bristol, Swansea and Northampton.

Mark Higson, Royal Mail’s managing director of operations and modernisation, said: “More seasonal recruits are required in some areas.

“We look forward to receiving applications from people who want to earn some extra money and help us sort the Christmas mailbag of around two billion items.”

A Santa recruitment agency yesterday said applications this year were no higher than in 2010, but that more people were applying to work as elves.

Last month, Sainsbury’s announced it was recruiting around 15,000 seasonal staff – 1,000 more than last year.

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon said it would have up to 2,000 seasonal jobs at its 820 pubs across the UK.

However, while many sectors such as shops, restaurants and hotel chains will be advertising for seasonal workers the decline in consumer spending has had an impact on recruitment.

Sarah Cordey, spokeswoman for the Scottish Retail Consortium, said latest figures suggest a number of retailers were holding back on recruiting seasonal staff until later in the year.

“There will be lots of festive job opportunities in the retail sector. Christmas is a crucial time and shops see a big increase in trade and these seasonal staff are essential.

“However, our latest employment figures suggest that after a difficult year some retailers may be delaying the recruitment of staff.”

Paul Waterson, chief executive of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, said the number of extra staff taken on in the hospitality industry depended on levels of Christmas bookings.

“It would seem people are booking later and bookings are down slightly,” he said.

“People do tend to drop their spending in October and November, perhaps because they’re saving up for Christmas.

“This means employers are being very, very careful about taking on Christmas staff.”

Alison Berneye, company director of Dreamtime Events which recruits Santas, elves and grotto supervisors, said: “You have to be a very special character to be Santa. They’re often actors and we only take men for authenticity. But we’ve had more applications from people wanting to be elves, jobs open to both men and women.”

But even traditional Santa jobs have come under threat from both digital technology and the recession. Cameron Toll shopping centre in Edinburgh got rid of its Santa and replaced him with an animated push-button display of gnomes and animals.

A spokesman for the shopping centre said: “It’s about making things accessible to all children as it can be expensive for parents taking children to see Santa.”