Hundreds of people are queuing in Dublin for temporary jobs at retail giant Marks and Spencer.
A spokeswoman for the store said upwards of 500 people were in the queue by 11am this morning. “We do a big push to get employees for the busy season every year, the turn out for Christmas recruitment is usually positive but this year it has been incredible," she said.
Some 588 part-time temporary positions are available at the company’s 20 stores throughout Ireland.
James Kane from Clarehall was among those in the queue at the Academy Plaza hotel on Findlater Place off O’Connell Street this morning.
The qualified personal trainer said: “There’s no work in the gyms so I have to take a different career path….it’s very frustrating as I have been job hunting for 7 months and I’ve applied for everything”.
“I thought I would be in and out of the interview in 30-45 minutes, but I have been here over two hours now,” he added.
Iseult Cremin from Clontarf said she didn’t expect much people to be in the queue; “my brother applied for the same positions last year and he walked straight in to the interview, there was no queue”.
The UCD psychology student said she had been searching for a part-time job for over a month but with no luck so far.
Successful candidates will be expected to work a minimum of 16 hours per week, including evenings and weekends.