Tesco is hiring 16,000 new staff after doubling its online deliveries

Tesco is looking to hire people for thousands of new roles, after it doubled its online deliveries during lockdown.

The supermarket is hiring for 16,000 new jobs to help meet the demand of online delivery, with the appetite for online shopping surging during the coronavirus pandemic.

Back in March Tesco created 20,000 temp roles to keep up with demand, as people started panic buying essentials like toilet paper and pasta.

Tesco

Now people have switched to online orders, with a spike in deliveries, the supermarket sees nearly 1.5 million customers doing their shopping online every week.

This is up from approximately 600,000 at the beginning of lockdown, with only 9% of Tesco’s sales coming from online shoppers before the pandemic.

The supermarket now sees more than 16% of its sales come from online orders, and bosses are predicting this will equate to £5.5billion worth of sales this year, compared to £3.3billion last year.

These new jobs, which are in addition to the 4,000 permanent jobs it’s already created since lockdown, will include 10,000 picker roles and 3,000 drivers, as well as in-store and distribution positions.

Tesco

Tesco will be offering the permanent roles to the temp staff they have taken on first, before offering them to outside applicants.

Jason Tarry, Tesco UK and Republic of Ireland chief executive, said: “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.

“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.”

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