Zoo wants a job?
Job-seekers were so desperate to find work that they caused a four-mile traffic jam as more than 3,000 of them descended on a zoo to fill just 150 vacancies at its annual recruitment day.
Twycross Zoo, in Atherstone, Warwickshire, had to close its doors to job hunters just one hour after it opened as thousands of people had already flooded through its doors.
People queued for more than two hours before the recruitment day opened to find seasonal work waiting on tables or selling souvenirs.
The jobs on offer are for food and beverage assistants, cooks, retail assistants, rangers or cleaning assistants, and even highly qualified workers were applying for low-paid jobs at the minimum wage to make ends meet after loosing their jobs.
The recruitment day attracted 500 people during the whole day last year.
Kim Riley, the PR and marketing executive at the zoo, said: "We have been absolutely inundated with people.
"I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the queues this morning.
"The recruitment day was supposed to run from 11am until 3pm today but we had people queuing up at the gate before 9am.
"We had at least 400 people in the queue at 9am and they stood there for two hours before we could let them in.
"By 11.30am we had 3,000 people queuing up.
"I couldn't believe we had 3,000 people competing for just 150 jobs. It's unheard of.
"And the traffic~was piled up for two miles in either direction of the zoo.
"We had to close the recruitment day at midday because we couldn't take any more people.
"We have been totally overwhelmed by the response.
"People are absolutely desperate for a job, they will take anything they can get their hands on.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would get this many people wanting to work at the zoo.
"It's a phenomenal response.
"We have had people turning up who were on quite good salaries and some with degrees who are so desperate for work that they will do anything.
"It's like we're holding the golden ticket in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and everyone is fighting to get their hands on it.
"It's going to be a mammoth task sifting through all of these applications."
One of the job-seekers was Alan Rowley, 53, from Tamworth, he has been unemployed since June last year and is desperate for work as his daughter is getting married in May.
The married father-of-one used to work as a security officer and was looking for work at the zoo as a ranger - they look after the carparks and take the money at the gate.
The job he was applying for paid £6.16 per hour.
He said: "I have been looking for work since June last year but it's so hard to find anything.
"Sometimes you don't even hear back from somewhere.
"It has been really good to actually talk to someone about work at the zoo today.
"But it's crazy that there's 3,000 here looking for work and there are only 150 jobs on offer.
"My daughter is getting married in May and that's crippling my bank balance so the money could really help.
"I have always worked and I've never shunned work. I just need to get back into it but it's very competitive.
"I was totally blown away by the number of people here today. I got here at 10.30 and I was queuing up for about an hour and a half."