Marks and Spencer has announced it will recruit 20,000 temporary staff over the Christmas period despite tough economic conditions, The Times has reported.
The news comes as the retailer revealed its like-for-like sales dropped by 0.5% in the 13 weeks to 26 September.
Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of M&S, said: “We are pleased to report continuing improvement in our performance. This demonstrates that the actions we are taking are working.
“We expect 2010 to be a tough year and we will continue to run the business accordingly.”
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Last month Sainsbury’s also said it would hire 20,000 new staff to cope with a surge in demand over Christmas.
Rose recently spoke to Personnel Today and urged employers to offer more young people work placements.