The supermarket expects the majority of these roles to be filled by people who joined on a temporary basis at the start of the pandemic. The full-time and part-time jobs will first be offered to these workers over the coming weeks and months, with remaining vacancies offered externally. The chain added it had already created 4,000 jobs since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
More roles could be created “in the coming months”, the firm said.
Around nine percent of Tesco’s sales were online before the lockdown but this has almost doubled to 16 percent, the company said.
Jason Tarry, the chief executive of Tesco UK, said: “Since the start of the pandemic, our colleagues have helped us to more than double our online capacity, safely serving nearly 1½ million customers every week and prioritising vulnerable customers to ensure they get the food they need.
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“These new roles will help us continue to meet online demand for the long term, and will create permanent employment opportunities for 16,000 people across the UK.”
Tesco became the first retailer to fulfil one million online grocery orders in a week.
The chain now serves nearly 1½ million online shoppers every week.
