JCB launches fresh recruitment drive to meet ‘soaring demand’

JCB has launched “a fresh recruitment drive” to employ 450 agency shop floor staff at its factories in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham.

Last month the Rocester headquartered company revealed it was hiring more than 400 UK shop floor agency employees and giving permanent JCB contracts from April 1 to more than 300 existing agency employees.

Today, it announced it was recruiting a further 450 agency shop floor employees at the Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham sites – and later this year will give an additional 400 agency shop floor employees with more than one year’s service permanent JCB contracts.

These will include assemblers, welders, fabricators and CNC machinists.

Mark Turner, JCB chief operating officer, said: “The rebound following the Covid-19 pandemic continues to gather pace and even in the space of a month since we started recruiting, we now need a further 450 shop floor employees. The creation of a total of 850 jobs this year is very good news for our business and for the areas where we operate. It’s also great news that this year we will give permanent JCB contracts to more than 700 agency employees, starting this month.

“The market for construction equipment has rebounded sharply after the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in Spring 2020, which halted production at JCB factories around the world.

“In March 2020, JCB’s orders disappeared overnight when the pandemic took hold. While no shop floor jobs were lost, many staff positions were impacted. It took more than six months for the business to recover to production levels last seen in March 2020. Forecasts predict a continued solid recovery, with strong demand from mainland Europe and North America.”