Photo: VCG

Tesco will create 16,000 permanent UK jobs to meet a surge in online demand for groceries triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the British supermarket giant said Monday.

Britain's biggest retailer added in a statement that it expects "the majority" of jobs to be filled by temporary staff drafted in during the pandemic to cope with soaring home food deliveries during the country's lockdown.

"Since the start of the pandemic, our colleagues have helped us to more than double our online capacity, safely serving nearly 1.5 million customers every week and prioritising vulnerable customers to ensure they get the food they need," said Jason Tarry, chief executive for Tesco UK and Ireland.

"These new roles will help us continue to meet online demand for the long term, and will create permanent employment opportunities for 16,000 people across the UK," he added in a statement. 

The new permanent positions are in addition to around 4,000 full-time jobs created by Tesco during the pandemic.

Some 47,000 temporary staff joined Tesco at the peak of the coronavirus, most of whom have reached the end of their contracts.

Monday's announcement came after major UK companies announced thousands of job cuts in recent weeks, notably across the aviation and retail sectors, owing to effects of the coronavirus outbreak.

In October, the UK government is to end a furlough scheme that has been paying up to 80 percent of wages for around ten million workers during the pandemic.