Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Sep 21, 2025

Almost 1,000 apply for receptionist job in Manchester

When a Manchester restaurant advertised for a receptionist on Monday, the owners were shocked to received almost 1,000 applicants in a day.

They had only expected about 30 people to be interested.

The UK's hospitality sector has been savaged by the coronavirus crisis, with many bars, restaurants and hotels struggling.

"It really is quite sad to see the amount of people that are looking for a job," the company said.

"On Monday we placed an advert for a receptionist role for our 20 Stories restaurant in Manchester," Carol Cairnes, director of people at the restaurant's owner D&D London, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"The next day, James, our head of talent, went to look at applications and was amazed to find that in less than 24 hours we had 963 people apply."

Normally for such a role they'd expect at that stage to receive about 30 applications, she said.

"Going through the candidates who applied, we could see there were a lot of very talented and highly-qualified people that applied for the role, including some restaurant general managers."

Hospitality jobs have proved highly-sought-after as thousands of roles have been slashed by restaurant groups.

In the last two weeks, popular chains such as Pizza Express and Azzurri have kick-started restructures of their businesses that are likely to lead to more than 2,000 job losses and hundreds of restaurant outlets closing.

Social-distancing rules have also led to businesses reducing staff numbers, as they have re-opened with less space, meaning they can cater for fewer customers at a time now.


Over-qualified applicants

Other businesses have reported similar experiences this week.

Emily Pringle of Alnwick-based fragrance company Notes of Northumberland told the BBC that she received 583 applicants when she advertised a 16 hour-a-week retail job.

"Most of the applicants were massively over-qualified," she said.

"It's a very sad sign of the times. A large number of people have been educated to PhD level and applying for our job, which is telling about the current state of the job market."

In Swansea, Sarah John, founder of Boss Brewing, said that her firm had advertised for a bar manager two days before and were surprised by the number and quality of applicants.

"We would normally only get five or so responses, but have had 35 people apply already and the calibre of applicants is really high," she said.

Most of the applicants had worked at reasonably well-known businesses, but have either lost their jobs, or are still furloughed and worried about their future, she added.

"There have also been quite of a lot of people who said they would be happy to relocate to work," she said.

"We're in Swansea and have had applications from people from as far as Manchester, Leeds and Cornwall."


Vacancies have halved

Meanwhile, when a London pub manager posted an advert for a £9-an-hour bar job last week, he was so overwhelmed by the response that he took to Twitter to report it.

Mick Dore, general manager of the Alexandra pub in Wimbledon, said: "I don't want to alarm anyone about the economy or anything, but I advertised two bar jobs at 16:30 on Thursday. We've had well over 400 applicants. Gulp."


He added: "We'd normally get a dozen or so sensible replies."

Research by the Institute for Employment Studies this week found that the total number of live job vacancies across the country now stands at 433,000.

That's less than half of the number in February, indicating that there's a long way to go in the recovery for the UK job market.

"Without doubt, this is now the toughest jobs market in a generation, and there are no signs yet of a significant recovery," said Tony Wilson, director of the Institute for Employment Studies.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
Documents Reveal Mandelson Failed to Declare Epstein-Funded Flights as MP in 2003
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Harris Memoir Sparks Backlash from Democrats for Blunt Critiques in ‘107 Days’
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Japan’s ‘Death-Tainted’ Homes Gain Appeal as Prices Soar in Tokyo
Massive Attack Withdraws from Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s €600M Defence-AI Investment
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders Third Lethal Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel as U.S. Expands Maritime Counter-Narcotics Operations
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
Why Google Search Is Fading and AI Is Taking Its Place
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Fifteen-Billion-Dollar Suit Against New York Times, Orders Refile
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
×