Jobs in Margate

About working in Margate

Margate is a seaside town on the Isle of Thanet, the eastern tip of Kent, and the job market here is shaped by the coast: health and social care, retail, and a tourism and culture trade that has grown since Turner Contemporary opened on the seafront. This is not a commuter-belt economy of office parks. Most of the steady work is in services, care and the public sector, with seasonal swings over the summer.

The biggest single employer is the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital (QEQM) on St Peter's Road, run by East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, which takes nursing, healthcare assistant, admin and ancillary staff year-round. Retail is the other mainstay, concentrated at Westwood: the Westwood Cross shopping centre on Margate Road and the surrounding retail parks off the A256 Haine Road on the Broadstairs (CT10) side, where the big-box and supermarket chains do most of the local hiring. Add Thanet District Council, Dreamland on the seafront, Turner Contemporary, and the cafes, pubs and guesthouses of the Old Town and Cliftonville. Care homes across Thanet recruit constantly.

A lot of vacancies never appear on a company careers page. They go through agencies, especially for care, warehouse, hospitality and NHS bank shifts, so registering with a couple of local branches alongside applying direct is worthwhile. On transport, Margate station runs Southeastern High Speed Javelin services to London St Pancras in about 1 hour 27 minutes via Canterbury West and Ashford International, plus the slower line to London Victoria via Chatham. By road the A299 Thanet Way runs west to Brenley Corner near Faversham, where it merges into the M2. Postcodes: CT9 covers Margate and Cliftonville, CT10 covers Broadstairs and the Westwood retail area, CT11 is Ramsgate and CT12 covers Minster, Manston and the Ramsgate outskirts.