Britain's John Lewis to recruit 7,000 temporary workers for Christmas season

LONDON (Reuters) - British retailer the John Lewis Partnership plans to recruit 7,000 temporary workers for the Christmas trading period, 2,000 more than last year, tempting potential joiners in a tight labour market with free food and drink, it said on Wednesday.

The employee-owned partnership trades from 34 John Lewis department stores and 331 Waitrose supermarket stores and also has a huge online operation.

It said it is also recruiting more than 550 permanent full-time driver and warehouse workers across its distribution centres and Waitrose.com and John Lewis.com customer delivery centres.

"We will offer free food and drinks to partners and temporary workers from 4 October to 31 December to help ensure we can attract the help we need," John Lewis said.

Official jobs data published on Tuesday showed businesses reporting over 1 million vacancies in the three months to August, the highest since these records began in 2001.

Last year Christmas celebrations in Britain were hindered by restrictions on the number of people allowed to meet up due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With no restrictions this year British retailers are expecting a bumper festive period.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Alistair Smout)