THERE may be less presents than normal underneath your Christmas tree this year, a Warrington recruitment firm is warning.

Berry Recruitment, one of the country’s largest suppliers of temporary workers which has a branch in Tannery Court, has said that a large number of presents may go undelivered.

It says that the reason behind this is a shortage of delivery drivers, with the shortage already being acute and worsening as the festive period nears.

Berry has estimated that demand is running at 30 per cent above supply and predicts that the figure could increase further in the last quarter of the year.

This is due to a combination of more online ordering and fewer European workers, creating what it says is a ‘perfect storm’.

The recruitment firm says that there is also a shortage of other workers such as packing, food production, order picking in supermarkets, production line staff and industrial operatives.

Lee Gamble, managing director of Berry Recruitment, said: “The situation is the same across the country.

Warrington Guardian:

“Lockdown has led to far more people ordering online. Many who had never used the internet for shopping are now converts, and more businesses are selling online.

“This has created a huge extra demand for all classes of driver, from HGV to local delivery drivers.

“What has exacerbated the situation is the lack of European workers. When lockdown looked likely many of them returned home.”

Lee expected to see retail and hospitality workers who had lost their jobs or were placed on furlough leave to help pick up the slack, but that has not happened.

“The reality is that if people do not do their internet shopping early, their Christmas presents might well not arrive in time,” he added.

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“The positives are that there are a lot of jobs out there, albeit possibly not the ones people ideally want.

“The shortage is such that I am advising our clients to hang on to their temporary workers even if there is not enough work for them – because when they do need them there might not be any.

“There is a shortage across all blue-collar roles and anyone looking for work should be able to find it.”