Royal Mail looking to take on 1,200 staff in the West Midlands
It might be known as the most wonderful time of the year, but for Royal Mail it is the busiest - and they are now recruiting hundreds of people in the Black Country as they gear up for Christmas.
As part of its annual festive season recruitment campaign, the company will be taking on 19,000 temporary workers across the country to support its 123,000 permanent postmen and women. Of the seasonal roles, 1,200 will go to workers in the West Midlands.
The new recruits will help to sort Christmas cards and parcels before they go to about 1,400 delivery offices for postmen and women to take out on their rounds.
As well as jobs helping sort the masses of Christmas post in mail, distribution and data centres across the UK, Parcelforce Worldwide is also recruiting seasonal workers, including drivers.
In Wolverhampton, 815 positions with Royal Mail are available - 175 in the city's mail sorting centre, and 640 in the West Midlands parcel sorting centre, which will be set up in the Wolverhampton area. There are also 430 roles in Birmingham up for grabs.
Sue Whalley, Royal Mail's chief operations officer, said: "Christmas is our busiest time of year.
"We plan all year round to help ensure we deliver the best possible service for consumers and businesses in the UK.
"Every Christmas, we make a substantial commitment in additional resources to handle the festive mailbag, including the recruitment of thousands of temporary workers."
The positions on offer are across a variety of shifts from mid-November through until early January, with the peak of the additional temporary work carried out in the busiest month of December.
Royal Mail says the recruitment programme is part of their substantial financial investment in additional resources at Christmas to help ensure they provide the best possible postal service to customers throughout the UK.
They will recruit around 14,000 workers across their core network in England, 1,340 in Scotland, 560 in Wales and 550 in Northern Ireland. The group's express parcels business, Parcelforce Worldwide, is also recruiting around 2,600 extra people, including drivers.
Earlier this week it was confirmed that Royal Mail will not be delivering on December 26 this year.
Postal industry regulator Ofcom said there will be no Saturday delivery that day, and this ruling will also apply to every future Boxing Day that falls on a Saturday.
As the bank holiday is the following Monday it means there will be no Royal Mail post and parcel deliveries from Christmas Day until Tuesday, December 29.
More information on the Christmas recruitment is available from www.royalmailgroup.com/xmasjobs
