Royal Mail to hire about 20,000 temporary staff for Christmas peak

Royal Mail will hire about 20,000 temporary workers across the United Kingdom to handle the surge in parcels and mail over the Christmas period, the company announced. The roles, which begin in late October and run through early January 2026, are intended to help process deliveries around Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the December peak.

The recruitment drive will create positions across two large parcel hubs, four seasonal parcel sorting centres and 37 mail centres nationwide. Royal Mail said the intake includes 12,000 mail centre sorting roles in England, 2,000 in Scotland, 600 in Wales and 400 in Northern Ireland. In addition, there are 3,000 delivery and collection roles and 2,000 temporary heavy goods vehicle and medium goods vehicle driver jobs. Parcelforce Worldwide will also add drivers and indoor staff, the company said.

To increase capacity, Royal Mail is establishing four additional temporary sort centres in Atherstone, Milton Keynes, Northampton and Daventry. The company has added about 118,000 square metres of extra sorting space at those sites, roughly equivalent to 16.5 football pitches, which will handle a large share of online orders before they are dispatched...