Morrisons is to expand its workforce by 5,000 in 2009, including new recruits in bakery.

The additions form part of the supermarket’s continuing store space expansion plans. In December, the retailer announced that it will acquire 38 Co-operative Food and former Somerfield stores, increasing the number of its smaller-format shops.

Around 4,000 staff will be housed in existing stores and the remaining 1,000 will be recruited for new store locations - shops that have been either refitted or built from scratch, said Rowena Cooper, retail resourcing consultant at Morrisons. It is unclear yet how many will work within the bakery area of Morrison’s ’Market Street’ concept, which will be rolled out, in part at least, across its additional stores, but the number will be "significant".

Morrisons is also working on refining its training scheme, said Cooper. The Fresh Food Academy promotes ’craft food skills’ and its programme will comprise a Retail Certificate, an NVQ Level 2 in retail, apprenticeships for bakers and further training options.

At present, Morrisons has not given details on the specific locations and nature of the additional jobs, but vacancies will be posted on its dedicated website [http://www.iwantafreshstart.com].