Announcing a drive to take on 20,000 seasonal employees this festive season, retailer Marks & Spencer has revealed that 20% of last year’s seasonal workers went full time in the new year.

It is de rigueur for seasonal jobs announcements to hint or outwardly state that Christmas staff will have the opportunity to join the business full time, but retailers tend not to announce full details of that conversion rate.

Last year, Marks & Spencer took on fewer staff (15,000) than they are planning to this year, one in five of whom were made permanent employees when their contract expired.

The company’s Christmas recruitment started as early as September in some stores, with most contracts ending in December or January.