Sainsbury’s, the British supermarket group, is planning to hire 22,000 temporary employees for the Christmas season, marking a 22% rise from the previous year. This move involves ramping up their workforce earlier than the typical seasonal schedule.

Being the United Kingdom’s second-largest grocery retailer after Tesco, the company has announced that its supermarket division will hire 20,000 employees, with an additional 2,000 to be added to its Argos general merchandise business.

Last year, the company brought in 18,000 new recruits.

“Sainsbury’s will welcome temporary colleagues earlier than usual this year, starting as early as this week,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

“This will ensure there are plenty of colleagues ready to help and serve customers, whether they like to plan ahead or leave their Christmas shopping to the last minute.”

Sainsbury’s stated that they had enhanced employee benefits for the holiday season, including an augmented staff discount and complimentary meals during working hours.

On Tuesday, market research firm Kantar reported that the unseasonably warm weather in Britain during September and the start of October had postponed the early sales of Christmas food.

Just earlier this week, Amazon UK announced the commencement of its recruitment drive for over 15,000 seasonal positions. In the preceding week, supermarket giants Morrisons and Aldi revealed their plans to hire an additional 3,500 and 3,000 staff, respectively, to meet the demands of the upcoming Christmas season.