It’s that time of year again… festive TV ads, festive lights, festive shops, festive food… and festive jobs. The temporary job market is booming and even more so coming up to Christmas. We’ve got the lowdown on this year’s job market, details of some rather unusual festive jobs and what’s what in the world of temporary employment.
Unusual Festive Jobs
In addition to the usual contract and temporary jobs this Christmas, there are some fun and unusual positions around! Tescos are after a Christmas tree light untangler, you can also become a reindeer handler, a present wrapper, tree decorator, rabbit sitter or even a chainsaw operator – indeed, a Dartmoor farm is looking for lunberjacks to cut down Christmas trees at their farm!
The Festive Job Market in 2015
This Christmas, Royal Mail will take the crown for being the biggest temporary employer – indeed every winter the organisation takes on around 20,000 employees. The other top five festive employers take on around 60,000 temporary workers – so opportunites are aplenty for the festive job seeker.
Sectors with large availability around Christmas are well known for being so and include customer service, retail and warehouse positions.
When and Where?
Where: The Guardian recently cited social media as being a good place in which to start your festive job search as so many candidates use job boards or newspapers that these channels can get saturated. Online recruitment agencies such as ours too receive a lot of Christmas postings and can offer a great starting point for finding a temporary role.
When: When it comes to the time of year that’s prime for applying to a temporary Christmas position you can start from as early as October and as late as December, though the earlier the better, particularly if there’s any job training involved.
Why Temporary Work is Taking Over
Nearly half of workers out there are now looking for flexible working opportunities – and recruiters are finding permanent positions some of the toughest to fill as a result. Workers are less interested in money and more interested in their wellbeing – indeed the positions recruiters find the easiest to fill are in the temporary sector in alignment with flexible working findings.
How Christmas Jobs Can Benefit Your Career
Too often, temporary festive jobs can be stereotyped as “filler” work, a role simply to earn a bit of extra cash. But they can not only form useful working relationships for the future, but offer up new skills you might not get the opportunity to acquire throughout the rest of the year.
So – looking for a new position this Christmas? Get on social media, start applying now and don’t think of it as a “filler” job – it may well be better for your career than you think!
Castle Hill House