McDonald’s said Monday it plans to hire up to 375,000 U.S. restaurant employees this summer, its biggest hiring push in years, according to the Associated Press. The Chicago burger giant said the increased job openings at both company-owned and franchised stores are partly due to a U.S. expansion. The company has more than 13,500 restaurants in the U.S. and plans to open 900 more by 2027.
McDonald’s stressed that the new hires will be for permanent positions, but that doesn’t mean the company expects its U.S. workforce to exceed 1.1 million people by the end of the summer. The hiring takes into account high levels of turnover.
The restaurant’s decision to staff up for this summer signals optimism that U.S. restaurant traffic will improve as the year unfolds.
In the January-March period, McDonald’s U.S. same-store sales — or sales at locations open at least a year — slumped 3.6%. That was the biggest U.S. decline McDonald’s has seen since the pandemic shuttered stores, restaurants, schools and other public spaces in 2020. McDonald’s said lower- and middle-income consumers, worried about inflation and the economic outlook, cut back on fast food during the January-March period.
Other restaurant operators seem to share its optimism, however. U.S. restaurants and bars added more than 46,000 jobs in March and April, according to the National Restaurant Association. Chipotle said in February that it hoped to hire 20,000 workers.
