Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L) today confirmed its intention to recruit 15,000 temporary staff for this year’s Christmas and New Year trading season.

The roles are expected to be in a variety of areas including in-store assistance, customer services, deliveries and for the Sainsbury’s To You service.

Helen Webb, human resources director at Sainsbury’s said today’s announcement was further evidence of Sainsbury’s resilience in what are difficult trading conditions.

She explained, ‘We are very proud to make this announcement. These new roles are great news for the economy and will provide a real boost to communities across the UK.

‘We are looking for passionate, motivated individuals who love working as part of a team. Retail is a fantastic industry to work in and there really is no better time to be in store than at Christmas.’

Sainsbury’s kept around 2,100 of its temporary staff from last year’s seasonal recruitment and it is envisaged that some new roles will become permanent this time around.

Webb added, ‘Last year we had over 24 million customer transactions in Christmas week alone, so our seasonal colleagues are absolutely vital in ensuring that we provide our customers with great customer service right across the store.

‘We know from experience that many of our seasonal colleagues use the opportunity as a springboard to a career at Sainsbury's. We hope that many of the colleagues from this year's intake will benefit in a similar way.’

Sainsbury's has around 930 stores across the UK with 150,000 colleagues. Outside of the busier festive period the retailer has over 22 million customer transactions each week.