HAMPSHIRE branches of Barclays Bank are set for a "significant" number of the 1,000 new staff the high-street financial giant has just announced it plans to hire.

Plans are not advanced enough to say exactly how many new workers will be hired in the region, but recruits will be targeted at profitable areas and bosses say Hampshire is "buzzing'' with business at the moment.

Cashiers and other shop floor staff are set for a hike in wages as well under the radical shake-up, which also sees 800 middle management and support jobs lost.

Barclays, Britain's third largest bank, said some losses would be met by leaving posts vacant, while the bank will also seek to re-deploy as many staff as possible.

The new jobs are designed to reduce waiting times in branches, of which Barclays currently has 50 in Hampshire, each employing between three and 20 people.

A spokesman said: "The area could get a large slice of the available extra positions. This will have a significant impact on the Hampshire area. It is a buzzing area for business for Barclays and we are concentrating our efforts where we currently have good business.

"It's too early to say how many jobs will be created but we want to make a real difference here.

"We are encouraging people with the right customer service skills to come into their branch to talk to us about these new jobs. We will talk to anyone from 16 to 64," he added.

A recent experiment revealed the public didn't trust the bank when not a single passer-by took advantage of a free £5 offer in its window because they were convinced it wouldn't be genuine.

"We all felt we needed to do more to get customers back in the focus of the business," said chief executive of UK banking Roger Davis.