Royal Mail taking on 500 Christmas staff in the North East

Seasonal workers are being sought to help sort the Christmas post and deal with the increasing amount of online shopping.

They will support Royal Mail's 120,000 permanent postmen and women who sort and deliver the mail throughout the year.

In the Tyneside area, there are about 500 jobs on offer, and they are among 19,000 available nationwide.

Positions are available from November this year until early January 2017, across a variety of shifts.

The peak of the additional temporary work will be in December.

The temporary recruits will help to sort Christmas cards and parcels and online shopping orders before they are taken to around 1,400 delivery offices for postmen and women to take out on their rounds.

Royal Mail Group’s express parcels business, Parcelforce Worldwide, is also recruiting about 1,850 extra sorting staff and 830 drivers throughout the UK.

Royal Mail has set up a dedicated website for people to apply for the Christmas positions, which can be found at www.royalmailgroup.com/xmasjobs

Those interested can also call the helpline on 0345 600 1785.

Royal Mail’s chief operations officer, Sue Whalley, 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 at Christmas.

"We make a substantial commitment in additional resources including the recruitment of thousands of temporary workers to handle the festive mailbag and the growing market of online Christmas shopping.”

Royal Mail also has a year-round recruitment drive where it recruits postmen and women into its delivery offices around the UK.

There are a range of permanent and temporary delivery roles in sites across England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland. More information is available at www.royalmail.com/jobs.