Australia Post announces 4000 new jobs before Christmas delivery spike

In good news for the huge number of Aussies struggling to find work ahead of Christmas, 4000 new jobs have been added to the market.

Australia Post is gearing up for its busiest Christmas period ever by recruiting 4000 people across the country to help shoulder an expected record load of parcel deliveries.

The news will come as sweet relief for a fraction of the hundreds of thousands who have been plunged into unemployment during the coronavirus economic crisis but competition for positions is expected to be fierce.

Earlier in the year when the nationwide lockdown led to horrific job losses, 50,000 applicants put their names forward for the 1000 casual roles Australia Post needed to cope with escalating demand.

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The announcement would be welcome relief for many Australians.

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Included in the latest round of roles announced this morning, nearly 2900 will consist of Christmas casuals across the country, and a further 300 full-time and part-time customer contact centre opportunities in Brisbane and regional areas of South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland.

It will also recruit about 900 roles in other areas of the business including the Post Office network to help service customers better.

“In managing all the necessary COVID-safe requirements, including a reduced workforce in our Melbourne facilities during the recent Stage 4 restrictions, our people have gone over and above to provide critical services for businesses and their customers and delivered for over 8.1 million households who have shopped online between March and August alone,” Australia Post executive manager Sue Davies said.

“This is a record-breaking recruitment drive for what we expect to be a Christmas unlike any we’ve had before in Australia Post’s history.”

The announcement comes after the delivery service warned of lengthy delivery delays heading into Christmas as parcel demand surges 200 per cent.

As warmer weather sets in, executive manager Gary Starr advised consumers to “plan early”.

Modern shopping patterns now focus on online shopping events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which will add extreme strain on the already struggling delivery network.

“We will be publishing Christmas cut-off dates … both to our retailers and merchants and clearly to the public,” Mr Starr told Channel 7’s The Morning Show last month.

“(The cut-off) will be late November to early December.

“What I do expect is that during that cyber sale period from mid-November into early December will be the main Christmas shopping period this year.

“I urge people to plan and plan early. Who knows what Christmas will bring. Last Christmas brought the bushfires and floods and we were just coming off our busiest period and then the pandemic hit.

“We have planned as much as we can with our customers – and they are also struggling with bringing in inventory and merchandise to sell.

“Planning is the bottom line.”