Thousands of jobs will give a much-needed boost to the Sussex economy over the festive period.

Shops and businesses are expected to take on hundreds of staff in the run up to Christmas, providing unemployed people with temporary work.

Royal Mail will be recruiting 600 staff over for the festive season.

Most of the jobs will be at its Gatwick Mail Centre but there may also be opportunities at smaller sorting offices in East and West Sussex.

Spokeswoman Sally Hopkins said: “Christmas is the busiest time of the year for Royal Mail. On peak days the volume of cards, letters and packets we handle is around double the 62 million items we deal with on an average day.

“We are therefore recruiting around 600 people in Sussex to help us deliver the best possible service to our customers.”

Department store Debenhams will also be looking to employ more than 120 seasonal temps at its stores in Brighton, Worthing, Crawley, Eastbourne and Hastings, to cope with its busiest time of year.

The retailer's emphasis on flexible shift patterns will ensure additional staff are in store whenever customers need them.

Successful candidates will work with the department store from mid-November until the beginning of January.

Other retailers including Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Asda will follow suit and are expected to announce extra jobs in their Sussex stores in the coming weeks.

For the full story see today's Argus.