1,700 apply for eight Costa jobs

More than 1,700 people applied for eight jobs at a new coffee shop, in an indication of how tough the jobs market remains.

Coffee shop chain Costa said it received 1,701 applications for the posts at their new branch in Mapperley, Nottingham, after advertising in early December.

It comes ahead of new unemployment figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Costa said the firm was shocked at the response for the three full-time and five part-time posts at the shop, which is due to open on Woodborough Road on Friday.

She said applicants for the posts, with wages between £6.10 and £10 an hour, ranged from new graduates to former managers who were clearly overqualified for the positions.

The applicants included employees of music chain HMV and Clinton Cards, which have both been among a number of high street stores forced to call in the administrators due to the tough economic climate.

More than 1,000 jobs are to be lost at HMV as administrators announced it is to close 66 of the music chain's 220 UK stores over the next two months. Hundreds of jobs were also lost when Clinton went into administration last year but many were saved when the brand was bought by a US firm.

The spokeswoman for Costa said: "We were shocked at the response - I don't think we expected anything like the number of applications we received. Applicants ranged from new graduates to ex-shop managers among others, and we've been really encouraged to see so many people wanting to work at their local Costa store."