The Number plans to take on 300 workers

The directory enquiries company, The Number, is holding the employment advice event on Thursday at St David's Hall for the 300 jobs it wants to fill.

The employment boost comes as a bank pledges to take on 60 people over the next two months at its call centre operation in south east Wales.

Lloyds TSB said rising customer demand means it needs to expand its base in Newport.

Telephone firm The Number has been inundated with inquiries since it announced last week that it plans to recruit 300 extra staff for its alternative directory inquiries service.

Contracts

The firm, which already employs 500 people at its Cardiff Gate headquarters, is one of several offering a directory enquiries service following the deregulation of the sector.

BT's monopoly of the 192 and 153 services is to be phased out by the end of year.

Lloyds TSB has pledged to hire 60 people in Newport

Lee Williams, The Number's human resources director, said he expected around 500 people to turn up for event, with some people signing a contract on the day and starting work as early as next Tuesday.

He said: "I'm looking to take on 32 to 48 people every single week between now and August.

"We've got some of the best salaries in the south Wales call centre market.

"It will be a great opportunity for people to see what a call centre like ours can offer."

Expansion

Meanwhile, Lloyds TSB said the company was working with a couple of recruitment agencies to find the 30 people per month it wants to hire for the next two months.

The bank's Tredegar Park call centre, which opened in 1994, handled five million customers in 2002.

It is one of three in south Wales, the others are in Bridgend and Swansea, which employ around 1,500 staff.

The Number's jobs expansion comes after an Irish company which also has call centres in Cardiff and Swansea has launched a rival directory inquiries service, 118UK Ltd.

The 192 number currently receives an estimated 600 million calls each year.

Unpaid

However, recent research has predicted a third of all call centres in the UK would close in the next two-and-a-half years, with the loss of 90,000 jobs.

Wales has already seen sudden and huge job losses as call centre contracts have been lost.

In June 2000, 1st Line Communications, which operated call centres in Cardiff and Swansea, collapsed with debts of �15m.

Around 2,000 1st Line workers lost their jobs.npaid.

And more than 800 people in west Wales lost their jobs when ITV Digital collapsed last year.