Noel time like the present: Christmas Recruitment Begins

The John Lewis Partnership has begun its biggest ever seasonal recruitment campaign, as it invests in its award winning customer service to meet anticipated demand during the ‘golden quarter’.

Some 13,700 seasonal roles are now being recruited for, including 3,000 across 35 John Lewis branches, 8,500 within Waitrose 315 shops and nearly 2,200 across the retailer’s distribution centres and supply chain network.

This significant recruitment for seasonal roles is a direct result of the Partnership’s wider investment in strengthening its customer service and experience – including the opening of its first new Waitrose stores in six years, and an £800m in John Lewis including the transformation of its beauty halls.

The efforts are already paying off: John Lewis was recently named Retailer of the Year by Which? – with judges recognising its “great value for money and first-class customer service”. Similarly, in the 2025 Customer Service Institute it became the highest-rated retailer in the UK.

Meanwhile, Waitrose recently scooped The Grocer Awards for both Service and Availability, after winning 20 of the ‘store of the week’ awards across the year.

Kicking off with the launch of new seasonal ranges, the build up to Black Friday in November, before moving into Christmas and John Lewis’ famous January Winter Sale, the so-called golden quarter is the retailer’s busiest period of the year.

During the period, John Lewis is expected to welcome well over 30 million visitors to its shops – in addition to receiving over 180 million visits to its website. Its distribution centres will dispatch more than two deliveries each second. Meanwhile in the week leading up to Christmas, Waitrose Partners will pick and deliver over 8 million cases of product to its shops to help make sure that customers have everything they need for a perfect celebration.

Successful candidates will receive a competitive salary and training, as well as flexible and blended working options. Seasonal shop roles are live at jlpjobs.com/Christmas.