MORE than 2,000 people have applied for 100 jobs at an electrical store which is due to open in Derby this autumn.

As reported in the Derby Telegraph last week, home electrical retailer Best Buy will open a store at the former B&Q premises at Kingsway Retail Park.

Best Buy is one of the best-known names in home electronics in America and sells audio-visual equipment, computer technology, entertainment devices, mobile phones, music, films and games.

The firm is currently recruiting for store managers, department heads and sales, operations, merchandising, asset protection and administration staff.

Posts in the firm's "Geek Squad" technical support team will also be available.

Mark Matthews, general manager of the Best Buy Derby store, said: "The response to our search for people to join us has been very positive.

"We'd still encourage anyone who is a great communicator, keen to learn, passionate about technology and, most importantly, helping customers, to apply."

The clamour for jobs at Best Buys' Derby store mirrors the demand for positions when Jurys Inn started recruiting for its hotel in King Street last year.

The hotel chain teamed up with JobCentre Plus to hold a recruitment event which saw 500 people turn up to apply for 25 jobs.

Recent statistics suggest the number of people looking for work in Derby is falling.

Figures released this month showed the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in the city had fallen for the fourth consecutive month.

In June, the number of people actively looking for work fell by 285, or 3.9 per cent, to 7,060. In the rest of Derbyshire, the number of claimants fell by 5 per cent to 15,292, a drop of 802.

But Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber said other job cuts at major firms in the past few months may not yet have filtered through to the jobless figures.

Somercotes chocolate-maker Thorntons, Burnaston car-maker Toyota, Celanese Acetate and BemroseBooth, both in Spondon, are all cutting jobs.

In the public sector, Derby City Council is to make hundreds of job cuts.

Chamber chief executive George Cowcher said: "With job losses in the public sector looking increasingly likely, there will be an increased pressure on businesses to create more jobs."