Coles has extended their recruitment drive by announcing another 5,000 jobs.
The supermarket has already hired more than 7,000 people in two weeks to cope with demand amid panic-buying sparked by the coronavirus.
The new recruits have have been fast-tracked into Coles’ supermarkets and alcohol outlets across Australia.
The 5,000 newly announced roles include store team members to serve customers and replenish shelves, as well as customer service agents to deliver orders to online shoppers, and 100 trade qualified bakers for the in-store bakeries.
Coles has extended their recruitment drive by announcing another 5,000 jobs
The supermarket has already hired more than 7,000 people in two weeks to cope with demand amid panic-buying sparked by the coronavirus
Coles CEO Steven Cain said he was working with major businesses and unions to provide employment for staff recently recently finding themselves out of work.
‘Coles is doing everything we can to support jobs and the economy through this challenging time, while also ensuring we can provide groceries for all Australians,’ he said.
Mr Cain said Coles has been flooded with applications from people across a range of industries.
‘To ensure we could act quickly, we streamlined our recruitment processes and assigned a dedicated team to fast track applications sent by corporate partners like Australian Venue Company and Virgin Australia,’ he said.
‘We have seen a lot of demand for roles, and where we have positions available, we are making sure that we can get people into them as quickly as possible.’
Coles has opened three ‘pop-up’ distribution centres in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria.
The supermarket giant said these centres have also created more jobs in the supply network and hinted more distribution centres could rushed into operation as the company struggles to meet customer demand.
Mr Cain said Coles has been flooded with applications from people across a range of industries
Coles said they will hire another 5,000 workers after already hiring 7,000 in the past two weeks
In the previous round of recruitment the 7,000 jobs included 6,500 casual positions, 430 part-time roles, and 80 full-time management positions.
Of these 1,700 jobs were in Victoria, 1,800 in Queensland, 2,000 in New South Wales, 600 in South Australia, 700 in Western Australia, and about 100 each for the ACT, Tasmania, and Northern Territory.
The recruitment drive follows other major employers around the nation announcing massive reductions in their workforce as the COVID-19 lockdowns affect many industries.
On Wednesday, Virgin Australia announced 8,000 staff would be stood down including all pilots in their budget carrier Tigerair.
This follows Qantas standing down 20,000 of it’s workers last week.
Casino workers have also been hard-hit with Star Entertainment standing down 8,100 workers and Crown resorts about 10,000.
This is in addition to a flood of casual hospitality workers losing their shifts after federal government lockdown measures ordered businesses such as pubs, gyms and cinemas to close on Monday.
Restaurants and cafes are also operating with a bare minimum of staff, being allowed to only cater for takeaway and delivery orders.
The new recruits have been fast tracked into Coles’ supermarkets and alcohol outlets across Australia
‘Coles is doing everything we can to support jobs and the economy through this challenging time, while also ensuring we can provide groceries for all Australians,’ Coles CEO said