ALMOST 1200 job seekers are being plucked from dole queues in the Glasgow area to work at shopping malls across the city in the run-up to Christmas.

But for every successful candidate at least four others lost out in the search for temporary jobs at Silverburn, Forge, Buchanan Galleries, Fort and Braehead.

The rush for festive work at some of Scotland's busiest shopping malls triggered an avalanche of applications from more than 4000 hopefuls.

The latest shopping centre to throw a lifeline to the unemployment as well as college and university students over the Christmas and New Year period is Buchanan Galleries.

The sprawling city centre retail hub has 90 stores but 230 temps will be working for just 23 retailers including River Island, Next, Bank, Miss Selfridge, Boots and the Perfume Shop as well as Scotland's only Lego store,

Department store chiefs at John Lewis are taking almost half the recruits.

Lynsey Fleming, recruitment co-ordinator, said: "Christmas is a really exciting time to be a partner at John Lewis Glasgow and we look for enthusiastic people who understand the importance of making sure every customer receives a high level of service.

"We are in the process of employing 100 Christmas partners with a mixture of part and full-time hours. We are employing the same number of temporary staff as we did last year and have also brought forward our start dates to make sure we are prepared for the Christmas season."

Linda McCormick, marketing manager at Buchanan Galleries, added: "We are delighted to be welcoming more than 200 new sales staff over the Christmas period."

But the shopping mall refuses to say how many potential temps have so far applied for a festive post with a spokeswoman saying that the recruitment process remains ongoing as does the applications.

The jobs breakdown is:

l St Enoch Centre: 200 vacancies but 1355 applications.

l Silverburn :400 vacancies but 1065 applications.

l Fort: 120 vacancies but 776 applications.

l Forge: 58 vacancies but 702 applications.

l Braehead: 400 vacancies but more than 1000 applications.

Job fairs were held by three malls - Silverburn, Fort and Forge - in partnership with Jobs & Business Glasgow, an arms length organisation set up by the city council to boost economic development by helping the jobless get "work ready" with the skills wanted by employers and assisting in the creation of more "start up" firms to generate more jobs.

Silverburn boss David Pierotti is delighted.

He predicts a "fantastic" Christmas at the retail centre with free park and surprises lined up for shoppers.

He also says of the mall's record 400 festive recruits: "We have created more jobs than ever."

gordon.thomson@ eveningtimes.co.uk