Hundreds of jobs will be up for grabs when a supermarket’s new regional distribution centre is complete.

Work on the £50million complex for Aldi, next to Neats Court in Queenborough, is expected to finish in March.

And the Job Centre in Swale is expecting a huge amount of interest in the roles available. Its partnership manager (Swale) Jane Durant said recruitment would begin well before the centre was up and running.

She added that around 400 jobs would be on offer, including drivers, order pickers, fork lift drivers and administration staff.

“There’ll be a whole range of jobs on offer, which will provide a massive boost in the jobs market once it’s up and running.”

This follows the “positive” figures released by the Office for National Statistics last Wednesday, which showed a fall in the number of people claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA) in Sittingbourne and Sheppey last month.

In total, 1,700 people were in receipt of the benefit – down 55 on April. Swale as a whole saw a decline of 75 to 1,970.

In May, the number of people on unemployment benefits across Kent fell by its largest amount since July last year.

There were 19,095 claimants of JSA or universal credit last month, a fall of 405.

Mrs Durant said: “It’s fantastic news for Swale, especially bearing in mind we’ve had a couple of small companies making redundancies – such as Dovetail at the Kent Science Park and Swale Heating.”

She added that further jobs had been taken at the new M&S Foodhall and Maplin at Sittingbourne Retail Park and that the centre was working with KFC to fill positions on the island.

Jobs are also on the horizon at The Jenny Wren in Sittingbourne plus Subway, Burger King, Starbucks, Costa, The Original Factory Shop and Poundland at the Neats Court shopping centre in Queenborough.

Mrs Durant pointed out that charity shops such as Cancer Research were always willing to give volunteer opportunities, which helps develop customer service skills – and looks great on CVs.

“It’s still a very buoyant labour market out there,” she added.