Almost 14,000 people have applied for a job in Bristol's new flagship Primark store.

The latest addition to the city's retail renaissance – which will open on August 13 – will be the second biggest Primark in the country and create about 420 jobs.

But in a sign of the economic times, the vacancies at the Broadmead shop have drawn overwhelming numbers of applications, with an average of 32 people applying for each post.

It comes as figures showed there were six workers chasing every vacancy at city job centres.

Primark director Breege O'Donaghue, said: "We're trialling a new online recruitment system for Bristol and we've had 13,714 people use the system so far.

"It's incredible, we're absolutely delighted. We've been interviewing for about three weeks."

The hourly pay rate for sales floor supervisors will be £7.28. Sales assistants – or retail operatives as Primark calls them – are being offered £5.93 for over-18s and £5.03 if they are aged under 18. The pay rate is the same for backroom staff.

The rush for jobs at Primark mirrors the situation across the city, with six workers chasing every job advertised by Jobcentre Plus.

Figures uncovered by the Tories showed the worst-hit jobseekers in the recession were builders, with 260 signing on for benefits while seeking construction work – but not one post in the industry had been advertised in a job centre.

Some 195 farming and agriculture workers were looking for work, with just one employer recruiting, while 45 IT workers were competing for every job advertised.

Just 69 vacancies for shop assistants were posted on the Jobcentre Plus boards while 1,485 of those out of work placed retail jobs at the top of their list of preferred employment.

There were 27 unemployed administrative workers for every post advertised.

The Conservatives' figures were based on vacancies advertised at the city's Jobcentre Plus – where around one third of an area's jobs are advertised – on a single day to give a "snapshot" of unemployment and available jobs.

Theresa May, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said: "These figures show the very real challenge of unemployment across Bristol today. It is essential that jobseekers in Bristol get as much information as possible on what jobs are available."

Nationally the number of job seekers has risen from two chasing every vacancy in October to seven in April. The Government was today due to publish the latest monthly JSA count and number of vacancies at each Job Centre Plus.

After the new Primark store opens in August, its opening hours will be from 9am until 8pm, Monday to Friday, until 7pm on Saturdays and between 11am and 5pm on Sundays.

With 90,000 sq ft of trading space, an area roughly the same size as two football pitchesbased on a football pitch 90 x 45m = 4050 sq m = 43,000 sq ft, the store in the former House of Fraser building on the Horsefair will be second in size only to Manchester and eight times bigger than the current Bristol store.

It will also be almost double the size of the company's most famous store on London's Oxford Street.

Primark said the Broadmead store would be its flagship for the South West, stocking its full range of products over four floors, with 57 cash registers, 76 fitting rooms and 18 escalators.

An entrance from the Haymarket will also be opened up.