ROYAL Mail is creating 400 seasonal jobs to help deal with the Christmas postal rush.
Temporary positions across a variety of shifts will be available between mid November and early January 2015.
Around 400 people are needed to work in Chelmsford.
The recruits will help to sort Christmas cards and parcels before they go to around 1,400 delivery offices for postmen and women to take out on their rounds.
Royal Mail Group’s express parcels business, Parcelforce Worldwide, is also recruiting extra people throughout the UK.
The peak of the additional temporary work will be in December.
Tony Fox, Royal Mail’s Operations Director for the East region, said: "Christmas is the busiest time of the year for Royal Mail and we plan all year round to help ensure we deliver the best possible service to our customers.
"Every Christmas, we make a substantial financial commitment in additional resources to handle the festive mailbag, including the recruitment of thousands of temporary workers."
Royal Mail has set up a dedicated website for people to apply for the positions: www.royalmailgroup.com/xmasjobs.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here