Tesco to create 16,000 new permanent jobs in online boom amid COVID-19 pandemic
Britain's largest supermarket Tesco on Monday said it will create 16,000 new permanent jobs to support the exceptional growth in its online business and may even increase the number of roles as the coronavirus lockdown boosted its sales.
Tesco Delivery Driver Paul Bradbury leaves work after he completes his delivery round, following the outbreak of COVID-19, Stoke-on-Trent, Britain, May 25, 2020. (File photo: REUTERS/Carl Recine)
LONDON: Britain's largest supermarket Tesco on Monday (Aug 24) said it will create 16,000 new permanent jobs to support the exceptional growth in its online business and may even increase the number of roles as the coronavirus lockdown boosted its sales.
"Since the start of the pandemic, our colleagues have helped us to more than double our online capacity, safely serving nearly 1.5 million customers every week and prioritising vulnerable customers to ensure they get the food they need," said Jason Tarry, chief executive for Tesco UK and Ireland.
"These new roles will help us continue to meet online demand for the long term, and will create permanent employment opportunities for 16,000 people across the UK," he added in a statement.
"The supermarket expects the majority of these roles to be filled by colleagues who joined on a temporary basis at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but who now want to stay with the business permanently," the company said.
Tesco said the roles will include 10,000 pickers to assemble customer orders and 3,000 drivers to deliver them, along with a variety of other roles in stores and distribution centres.
The new permanent positions are in addition to around 4,000 full-time jobs created by Tesco during the pandemic.
About 47,000 temporary staff joined Tesco at the peak of the coronavirus, most of whom have reached the end of their contracts. Before the pandemic, online sales at Tesco accounted for about 9 per cent of total revenue.
That has jumped to more than 16 per cent, with Tesco expecting online sales this year to reach more than £5.5 billion (US$7.1 billion).
Discount supermarket chains Aldi and Lidl said last month they will create an additional 1,200 and 1,000 jobs respectively this year in the UK, as the two continue to open new stores and drive market share gains.
Monday's update comes after major UK companies announced thousands of job cuts in recent weeks, notably across the aviation, energy and retail sectors, owing to COVID-19 fallout.
READ: UK suffers biggest job losses since 2009 as COVID-19 hits
Britain's economy shrank by one-fifth in the second quarter, more than any European neighbour, as the lockdown plunged the country into its deepest recession on record.
The UK government is set to end a furlough scheme in October that has been paying up to 80 per cent of wages for around 10 million workers during the pandemic. Analysts said this would result in soaring unemployment across Britain.
TRAVEL SECTOR WARNING
The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) warned on Monday that more than 90,000 travel jobs have been lost or remain under threat owing to coronavirus fallout.
Far fewer Britons are heading abroad, particularly after the UK government re-imposed quarantine on travellers returning from nations including Austria, Croatia, France, the Netherlands and Spain.
"Travel desperately needs the government in its next review to provide tailored support or tens of thousands more jobs will be lost," said ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer.
The survey results came after student specialist holiday firm STA Travel UK collapsed on Friday.
Among British retailers hit hard by virus fallout is Marks and Spencer, which last week said it was axing 7,000 jobs as wary customers steer clear of its stores, which mainly sell clothes and food.
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