Royal Mail has announced plans to hire 20,000 seasonal workers from late October through to early January.
Companies including Amazon, John Lewis and Morrisons are also carrying out a huge drive in temporary employment over the Christmas season.
Of the new roles, 17,150 will be in the mail centre sorting.
“Being part of delivering Christmas is a brilliant experience and one that we know offers lots of opportunities for employment and engagement in the communities we serve,” said the group’s chief executive, Zareena Brown.
New figures have found that demand for staff is reaching high rates, whilst employee availability is near record lows.
“The sharp rise in hiring activity is a reason to be hopeful, but competition is fierce,” said Claire Warnes, who is the head of education, skills and productivity at KPMG UK.
“The end of the furlough scheme should be bringing tens of thousands of new people to the jobs market, but many do not have the right skills to transfer to the sectors with most demand.”
Commenting on Royal Mail’s plans, AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould, said: “On a day when Royal Mail launched a drive to take on 20,000 Christmas workers in the UK the group also signalled its ambitions closer to Santa Claus’ neck of the woods with a sizeable acquisition in Canada.
“The deal to pick up freight carrier Rosenau looks to fill in the gaps in its Canadian business and should help with realising growth ambitions for its GLS international logistics arm.”
“Arguably this is the part of the group with the most potential and it is not faced with the same level of structural issues as its UK-based business.”