A PUB landlord has given an indication of how the jobs market is starting to look, revealing he had 484 application for just two £9 (US$11.3)-an-hour bar jobs.

Mick Dore, general manager of the Alexandra pub in Wimbledon, south London, wrote on Twitter: “I don’t want to alarm anyone about the economy or anything, but I advertised two bar jobs Thursday. We’ve had well over 400 applicants. Gulp.”

He added: “We’d normally get a dozen or so sensible replies (i.e. people who don’t live in West Ham and stuff). Not that there’s anything wrong with people who live in West Ham obviously, it’s just miles away.”

Dorre, 53, told the Times he had received applications from former air stewards, restaurant managers and shop workers recently made redundant.

He said the quality of applicants was so high that he ended up hiring six people.

Usually, he would have expected to get around a dozen replies from young people mainly with limited restaurant and bar experience.

The paper reported that data from jobs website Indeed showed many more people were searching for jobs compared to this time last year.

There was a 589 percent increase in the number of searches for “supermarket” roles, maintenance job searches were up 440 percent, while forklift operators were up 239 percent. (SD-Agencies)