Primark is hiring retail assistants across its UK stores for the Christmas trading period, with fixed-term contracts running until 2 January 2027 and pay of £13 an hour.

The fashion retailer is advertising the seasonal roles at stores including Cheltenham, Hastings, Chatham in Kent, Belfast and Lisburn. The jobs are part-time, with contracted hours varying by store, from 8 to 12 hours a week in some stores to 16 to 20 hours a week in others.

Shifts are varied and can include mornings, afternoons, evenings and weekends, with scheduled hours typically falling between 9am and 8pm. Some stores advertise a slightly higher rate of £13.11 an hour.

Retail assistants help customers with sizes and styles, purchases and returns, keep the shop floor and fitting rooms tidy, serve customers at the tills, and receive, unpack and check new deliveries before getting products onto the sales floor correctly priced.

Primark says no previous retail experience is specified in the adverts, but applicants should be passionate about people, honest, organised, good communicators and team players with a positive attitude and an interest in fashion.

Applicants must be above the compulsory school-leaving age in the UK and must have the right to work in the UK. Applicants must be aged 18 or over where a role requires regular working hours before 6am or after 11pm, because of legal restrictions on the working hours of young workers.

The roles come with an employee discount in any Primark store, a pension scheme, holiday based on hours worked, wellbeing initiatives and employee assistance programmes, and career pathways for those who want to progress in retail.

Primark describes Christmas as one of its busiest trading periods, and the seasonal assistants will support store teams through the run-up to Christmas and the final trading days of the year. The contracts end on 2 January 2027.

Applications are made through Primark's own careers website, where candidates can search for retail assistant roles at their nearest store. No closing date is published on the adverts, so roles are filled as applications come in and candidates are advised to apply early.

Each advert lists the store, the contracted hours, the shift pattern and the hourly rate up front, so applicants can check whether the pattern fits before applying. Candidates apply online through Primark's careers website, where roles are listed by store and location.

Primark is one of the UK's biggest high street fashion retailers, and its Christmas recruitment adds to the tens of thousands of seasonal roles announced by major retailers this autumn, including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Argos, Marks & Spencer, Boots and John Lewis.