1,000 jobs and 24,000 people wanted them - a Sunderland Nissan story from 1991

In 1991, Nissan advertised 1,000 vacancies at its Wearside plant.

Delighted with the massive response

Within days, the number of applications for the post had reached 24,000 and most of those were people from the North East.

A company spokesman said almost 99 per cent of the applications were from the region and the task of selecting the staff was under way. He said: “Clearly the company is delighted with the response to date.”

New Nissan car planned for 1992

The 1,000 manufacturing employees were needed for the introduction of the new Micra-replacement car to be built at the plant in 1992.

When the recruitment drive was over, the workforce would have risen from 3,000 to 4,000.

The first of the recruits was expected to be at the factory within a month of the jobs being posted.

Specialist workers were needed

The spokesman added: “It is a long-term process and everyone who applies gets a card telling them not to worry if they don’t hear from us for a while.

“Naturally, it takes some time to arrange aptitude testing and interviews.”

Nissan also placed national advertisements for about 150 specialist workers needed as part of the 1,000 intake.

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