An avalanche of more than 1,500 job applications have been received by Kingston’s John Lewis for 80 temporary Christmas positions.

The town centre shop has been snowed under by the volume of applications, for which there are 19 to every available position.

The flagship Kingston store received 1,200 applications for 80 Christmas jobs in 2010.

The festive staff support the department store during the extended opening hours in the run up to what is the busiest shopping period of the year.

The Christmas temps will fill a variety of selling assistant roles across a number of departments including Christmas shop, furnishing accessories, homeware, fashion and electrical technology.

Simon Lord, personnel manager, said: “The recruitment of these new temporary Partners and their enthusiasm to ensure our customers have a great experience when shopping with us, will allow John Lewis Kingston to be more helpful than ever.”

Meanwhile Olympic hopeful Gemma Turtle opened her employer's London 2012 shop on November 15.

John Lewis reported a 5.1 per cent drop in year-on-year sales at its Kingston store in the middle of September this year.

Earlier in the month the Surrey Comet reported that the borough has the lowest youth unemployment rate in the country, according to data released by the TUC.

The number of out-of-work Kingston residents aged 18 to 24 was 2.2 per cent in September, compared to a national average of 8.8 per cent, representing a 0.3 percentage point decrease since 2010.

Kingston Council made 63 staff redundant last year and Kingston Hospital announced plans to cut 486 posts over the next five years.

Kingston has been buffeted by national woes, most recently with the threat of closure to Oceana after nightclub operator Luminar went into administration in October, but the picture locally is mixed.

The town has one of the lowest shop vacancy rates in the country at 9.9 per cent, according to the Local Data Company and Kingstonfirst said footfall was outperforming the national average.