The announcement yesterday that Waitrose are creating 3,000 new jobs makes it a very opportune time to take a closer look at Part Time Supermarket Jobs.

Supermarkets employ a lot of staff, Tesco for example employ over 360,000 people in the UK, so there is always a good supply of part time jobs in supermarkets. Some recent sales figures would also suggest that the big supermarkets may be more resistant to the current echonomic downturn than many other sectors. After all, we’ve still got to eat!

Whilst supermarkets catering to the luxury end of the market may be feeling the pinch, just look at recent M&S announcements, the discount supermarkets seem to be doing very well at the moment.

I’ve actually worked part time for a couple of supermarkets over the years and they were pretty good companies to work for. My first supermarket job was as a student working evenings and weekends on the Deli counter of a local store. A few years later in my mid 20’s I worked on the night shift in a large store, stacking shelves. Both jobs were pretty good, I’ve had worse jobs before and since. Infact the nightshift job was very good, there was a great sense of camaradery in the night shift team and we had a good laugh. We did work hard, but it was a good atmosphere and one of the benefits of working strange hours was that wages were good.

So if you haven’t considered working in a supermarket before, here are a few reasons why you might want to:

• There will be quite a few supermarkets reasonably near your home that will frequently have part time positions available.
• There is a wide variety of jobs in the supermarket to suit different ages of employee and different skills and preferences.
• There are good opportunities for promotion once you get your foot in the door. You will find full time jobs and management trainee positions more accessible from within the company. I even got asked if I wanted to get put down for a night manager trainee position within 3 weeks at the store where I was working.
• The supermarkets are all pretty good employers. Being large companies they know the score when it comes to employees rights and generally look after their staff very well. 
• With supermarkets open from early in the morning until into the evening, or even 24 hours, you will be sure to find jobs that suit the times of day ot night that you want to work. If you are a student looking for something in the evenings or weekends, a mother looking for a few hours while the kids are at school or you don’t mind working night shiftsa supermarket could be a good place to start your part time job search.

The UK supermarkets all have careers sections on their websites but the jobs listed on them are generally for managerial, head office and specialist positions. Most of the UK supermarkets also run Graduate Recruitment programs and you’ll find details of these on the websites listed below. However, recruitment for part time in-store jobs is always handled at a local level, so the best plan of action is to visit your local stores and make enquiries there. Stores will often have a notice board displaying jobs in the store, failing that, seek out one of the managers or team leaders.

UK Supermarket Jobs Links:

• Tesco
• Asda
• Waitrose
• Sainsbury’s
• Morrisons
• Co-op
• Aldi
• Lidl
• Iceland
• InRetail – Retail Recruitement Agency