McDonald's Plans To Add 50,000 Jobs On 'Hiring Day'

By Lisa Baertlein - Fast-food chain McDonald's Corp announced a one-day spring hiring spree aimed at fighting the use of the term "McJob" as shorthand for describing low-wage, dead-end work.

The global restaurant chain said it plans to hire as many as 50,000 new U.S. employees -- ranging from restaurant crew to managers -- on April 19. The move would increase the hamburger company's U.S. workforce by 7.7 percent to 700,000, but such hiring is typical in the lead up to the busy summer months.

"Our total hires are similar to past years, but the goal of hiring 50,000 people in one day across the U.S. is unique," McDonald's spokeswoman Ashlee Yingling told Reuters.

The April hiring event is preparation for the busy summer months. "But these are not just seasonal jobs. It's a mix of permanent and temporary jobs," Yingling said.

She added that McDonald's hourly employees typically make more than minimum wage, often more than $8 per hour.

There are some 14,000 McDonald's restaurants in the United States. Ninety percent of McDonald's U.S. restaurants are run by franchisees, and pay varies by ownership.

Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's said in a statement that its April hiring event is an opportunity to highlight that "a McJob is one with career growth and endless possibilities."

Yingling said many of McDonald's top executives and franchisees worked their way up the company ranks.

Janney Capital Markets analyst Mark Kalinowski told Reuters that the announcement "certainly seems like a way to attract some favorable publicity around something it was more or less going to do anyway."

McDonald's said it and its franchisees would be spending an extra $518 million on wages and salaries for the 50,000 new workers it plans to hire.

McDonald's reported that February sales at its U.S. restaurants open at least 13 percent rose 2.7 percent compared with a year earlier.

U.S. employment grew firmly for a second straight month in March and the jobless rate hit a two-year low of 8.8 percent, underscoring a decisive shift in the labor market that should help to underpin the recovery.

That is better news for some than others.

Income growth for the top-earning U.S. workers has risen sharply since the 1980s, while the loss of well-paying manufacturing jobs has led to stagnation at the low end.

Workers earnings and corporate earnings also have barely risen so far this year.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein and Phil Wahba; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Tim Dobbyn)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

The company's hiring goal translates to between three and four new hires per restaurant.

McDonald's says turnover slowed because of the weak economy. The company sees an opportunity to attract employees in a tough job market.

McDonald's held a similar event in its Western region last year. More than 60,000 people applied for the 13,000 positions.

Those who are interested can apply in stores or online. Some restaurants will hold events and interviews that day.

McDonald's is based in Oak Brook, Ill.

Comments

[FindProz]

04:34 PM on 05/20/2011

When will kids realize that they don't have to flip burgers to pay for school? They need to get into tutoring or something. http://findproz.com/2011/05/18/how-to-pay-for-school-without-flipping-burgers/

[chimes]

10:19 AM on 04/23/2011

How come HuffPo isn't talking about this -- http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ec0_1303444048

[is it just me]

04:51 PM on 04/19/2011

MEMO FROM MGT: The hourly beatings will continue until worker morale improves!

[mgaedeke]

03:07 PM on 04/19/2011

Smells of a self-promotion and free advertising strategy... 50k jobs that aren't NEW jobs, they're simply ramping up for the (typically) heavier Summer workloads and re-hiring for positions they eliminated a few months ago... Someone had the "brilliant" idea to make it a marketing campaign - and trying to make it look like McD's is creating jobs... They're probably fooling many into believing what they say, but dig a little deeper and you'll find out that McD hires that amount of people practically on a weekly basis ...
Smoke

[demilieu]

02:16 PM on 04/19/2011

After searching their careers page, all McD's jobs in my state (TX) are in-store jobs on food service crews. There are zero corporate openings. There are some openings for assistant manager. One of the McD's suits was on the news last evening, explaining the hiring emphasis will be on people they feel will stick around for a while. If you're trying for one of these jobs, good luck to you.

[mikenova1974]

08:07 AM on 04/19/2011

still waiting for wealth to be spread my way, but it will never happen. socialism makes the goverment rich and we ALL will suffer. winston churchill and ronnie reagan were right. No-Term senator from illinois barack obama is wrong.

[mikenova1974]

08:03 AM on 04/19/2011

out of the 50,000 how many are full-time with benefits? my guess is 5% and other % might put in 15-20 hours a week. also thats approximately 3.3 openings per store, also No-Term senator from illinois will be shaking his pom-poms cheering like HE created these jobs. LOL!!

[carolina919]

12:41 AM on 04/18/2011

McDonald's latest foray into self promotion....shameless and shameful at the same time...quite a trick at that.

[carolina919]

12:04 AM on 04/18/2011

"McDonald's said it and its franchisees would be spending an extra $518 million on wages and salaries for the 50,000 new workers it plans to hire." For a CEO who was once an hourly worker this is a disappointing and sad commentary on business in America today. Think instead if McDonalds had come out as promoting the hiring of only legal workers, and using that 518$ in additional wages in giving current employees more hours. Many franchises keep employees to less than 20-24 hours a week (often in bruising "split shifts"). The fact that McDonald's is trumpeting this as a "good thing" is sad and pathetic.

[JaiS]

05:42 PM on 04/14/2011

Liberals don't want to work, I see so many of them complaining in this thread. They want to sit around a campfire eating Kashi bars listening to "Imagine".

[demilieu]

02:40 PM on 04/14/2011

I'll take 4 or 5 of those jobs - to stay in my house.

[carolina919]

12:05 AM on 04/18/2011

That's what you'll have to do because most franchises don't given anyone full time work....

[MikeyJaii]

10:14 PM on 04/13/2011

If these are the companies that are hiring and lowering the employment rate, there is almost no chance America will survive. People don't need "jobs" they need careers.

[The JillyBean]

04:01 PM on 04/11/2011

Oh goody! Sounds like a good day to start buying stocks in cholesterol and diabetic drug makers.

*head to palm*

[RealityCallingg]

04:10 AM on 04/08/2011

Democrats who took control of congress a full year BEFORE the recession even started and TWO years before the economic crisis they caused, destroyed not only the US economy but the world economy as well, destroying tens of MILLIONS of real high paying careers are now crowing because they have replaced those high skill jobs with part-time McJobs.

Is it 2012 yet??? America wants to deliver another 2010 and wisconsin style beatdown to the progressives responsible for destroying America

[Henry Karlson]

07:39 PM on 04/06/2011

Just say NO to McWork!

http://vox-nova.com/2011/04/06/just-say-no-to-mcwork/

[Island Fever]

06:47 AM on 04/11/2011

I would love to just say NO! However, I can't. As a single woman with a college degree, this is all that I could find. I make $7.75/hr for about 30 hours/week and have no benefits. I applied for a higher position but was told I was not qualified and it was given to a minority male 30 years my junior with no higher education. I am humiliated and my feet feel like bloody stumps, but I am trying desperately to pay the rent while I look for other work. If I say "NO", I'm on the street. I have recently had the experience of being yelled at by a 17-year-old high school student who has more seniority than I do since I have only been on the job for two weeks. I wanted to just walk out, but much as I love the outdoors, I don't want to live there.

[carolina919]

12:08 AM on 04/18/2011

We hear you. God bless you and "hang in there". And to think...the CEO of McDonald's was once in your shoes, a single mother .... and before any of that phoney baloney crowd starts chiming in about her fantabulous "social mobility" take a chill pill and realize that one in a million is not social mobility....and a ruthless company built on part time workers who get no benefits is NOT something to be proud of.