Marks & Spencer are hiring 11,000 extra Christmas workers

Marks & Spencer plans to hire more than 11,000 extra workers this Christmas – 1,000 more than last year.

The High Street retailer said jobs will range from on shop floor to stocking shelves and helping with the food-to-order service during the festive rush. Vacancies span both its food and clothing and home division.

M&S will be recruiting from October 9 and new staff will start work from mid-November.

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Sacha Berendji, operations director at M&S, said: "Our fantastic store colleagues play such a big part in delivering the magic of M&S at Christmas to our customers. And this year we’re recruiting even more colleagues to ensure we’re closer to customers."

He added: "With a range of roles and flexible working patterns available, anyone who is interested in being part of something special this Christmas should visit our careers website to apply."

M&S said there will be a range of start dates, variety of roles and flexible working patterns available. The firm also drafts in staff from its support centre over the busy festive trading season, with each worker in that division spending seven days in store each year, of which four are in the lead up to Christmas.

It said support centre employees last year spent 103,000 hours helping out in stores in the Christmas period.