Tesco moves to calm Twitter jobs row Furious Twitter followers riled the advert on the social networking site, questioning how it was possible for a major supermarket to get away with hiring someone in return for no full-time wage. Jobseekers' Allowance is currently paid at just £53.45 per week for under 25s, or £67.50 for older staff. A Tesco spokesman said the store's Twitter account had received hundreds of "tweets" overnight from upset jobseekers, customers and other people, with claims it was "exploiting" workers. But he insisted the advert was a mistake, and should have been for work experience, rather than a permanent job role. He said: "The advert is a mistake caused by an IT error by Jobcentre Plus and is being rectified. It is an advert for work experience with a guaranteed job interview at the end of it as part of a government-led work experience scheme. We take our responsibility as Britain's biggest private sector employer seriously. This includes giving young people valuable experience of the workplace, and 300 young people have so far gone on to get permanent employment with us as a result of work experience in recent months, but not as a replacement or substitute for our permanent staff. In general, Tesco staff receive a higher level of basic pay than any other supermarket, without exception. Separately, new Government figures out on Wednesday showed thousands of jobseekers have been made to work for four weeks without pay or risk having their benefits removed for at least 13 weeks. The Tesco jobs JSA row was trending on Twitter on Thursday. Tesco's Facebook page was also awash with angry posts.