New York
CNN
—
McDonald’s is seeking to hire up to 375,000 people ahead of the busy summer season, marking its biggest employment initiative in five years.
The hiring surge is focused on staffing up its 13,000 US restaurants as the company prepares to open 900 new locations over the next two years. McDonald’s made the announcement Monday at a restaurant in Ohio with Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
McDonald’s (MCD) is one of the biggest US employers, with the company estimating that 1 in 8 Americans have worked for the chain. Roughly 800,000 people work at its US restaurants, although this hiring initiative won’t increase that number. Similar to other fast food restaurants, McDonald’s struggles with 100% turnover rates and is regularly replacing departing employees with new ones.
McDonald’s doesn’t typically announce large-scale employee enlistment programs with its staffing largely left up to its franchisees. Other companies hire seasonally, with Chipotle typically hiring thousands of people in the spring ahead of so-called “Burrito Season” and UPS and Amazon hiring part-time jobs for the holidays.
McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger said Monday investing in the company’s workforce is a “win-win,” adding that it makes the company “more competitive while also positively impacting the economic and social conditions of the communities where we do business.”
Hiring 375,000 people is a high figure, considering that the US economy only added 177,000 jobs in April. The unemployment rate stands at 4.2%, a historically low level.
The employment initiative comes after McDonald’s recently reported its second consecutive quarter of declines as customers pull back their spending.
Same-store sales at its US locations fell 3.6% — the chain’s worst drop since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 when people were told to stay home.
McDonald’s biggest pullback in spending came from low-income consumers, which is down nearly double digits versus a year ago. Plus, in a reversal from a few months ago, even spending from middle-income consumers also “fell nearly as much, a clear indication that the economic pressure on traffic has broadened,” said McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski on a call with analysts earlier this month.
-CNN’s Ramishah Maruf contributed to this report.
