At a time when many economic indicators and Standard & Poors seem to be flipping off the U.S. economy, McDonald’s is poised to hire 50,000 new workers to flip burgers and manage those who flip them. Is this a sign that the economy is getting better and more bankable? Or just limited to one company?
The Christian Science Monitor, noting on the hiring — bigtime — for what is being called “McJobs” suggests the hiring could be a positive harbinger for the economy:
On Tuesday, in what it is terming National Hiring Day, the fast-food giant is taking applications for more than 50,000 jobs in 14,000 US restaurants, which means 7 percent more burger-flippers, French fryers, cashiers, as well as managers. The chain says it would not be surprised to receive more than 250,000 applications.
The main reasons the company, based in Oak Brook, Ill., is hiring: It expects a strong summer season, and some restaurants are moving to a 24-hour schedule, which will require an additional shift.
Employment specialists are cheered by the McDonald’s jobs because a significant portion of it is likely to involve teenagers or people without a college degree. The teen unemployment rate is currently 24.5 percent.
“These are the types of jobs we need,” says John Challenger, an employment expert at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm in Chicago. “This is especially good news for people who bore the brunt of the recession.”
And it’s believed this will have a true “trickle down” effect:
The new hiring, McDonald’s estimates, translates into an extra $518 million in annual wages and salaries, or about $1.4 million per day. This will help federal and local treasuries, since the income will result in $54 million in payroll taxes. Also, the hiring will generate an additional $1.4 billion in annual spending, or $3.5 million per day, the company estimates, using a statistical multiplier.
“Their estimates are quite reasonable,” says economist Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pa. “Especially since most of the people they are hiring are people who will likely turn around and spend the money.”
According to Business week, McDonald’s hopes these mass hirings will help change the McJob image. And think about it: how many comedians have used the punch line about someone who they felt could not go anywhere with the phrase “Do you want fries with that?” when, in reality, fast food jobs do offer upward economic mobility for those who want to advance within a big organization:
McDonald’s Corp., seeking to change by the stereotype that working in fast food is a dead end, is holding a hiring blitz.
The company is making a well-publicized push to hire 50,000 workers Tuesday. However, McDonald’s usually staffs up for summer anyway. A spokeswoman says last year, McDonald’s hired 50,000 employees throughout April.
The burger chain is also eager to change the perception of the term “McJobs.” It might be a tall order for a word that even the Oxford English Dictionary defines as “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects.”
The company says its jobs teach important skills and that many of its executives started as crew members.
And people are linking up. For instance, in Bakersfield:
With two small children at home and her medical assistant training on hold for lack of income, Cherrelle Moore was willing Tuesday to stand in a line of job applicants that wrapped halfway around the McDonald’s on Real Road by California Avenue.
“I need a job really bad,” 21-year-old Moore said after waiting an hour and a half for a job interview.
A few feet away, 34-year-old Maria Navas said she needed a job, too, having been let go recently from Wal-Mart. Also the mother of a small child, she had several years of prior experience at the same McDonald’s, not to mention an education in business administration, history and geography from Mexico.
The two women were among hundreds of Kern County residents who turned out for National Hiring Day, a widely publicized event designed to fill “up to 50,000” seasonal, permanent, full- and part-time positions at McDonald’s restaurants across the country.
How many jobs were available locally was unclear, as two local franchise representatives declined to provide an estimate other than to say that some restaurants in the county had as many as two dozen openings to fill heading into summer.
What did seem clear was that they got more than enough applicants to meet growing demand for value-priced meals in a tight economy.
(Will the managers ask: “Do you want benefits with that?”)
Thousands of people showed up at the 75 McDonald’s in the Triad on Tuesday, but they weren’t looking for a Big Mac and fries. They hoped to order up jobs.
Given the state of the economy, no one seemed to mind that “McJob” has become slang for low-wage, unskilled labor.
“I’ll even sweep the floor,” said Vanessa Osuji, a 51-year-old from Greensboro who has been out of work since December. “There’s no shame in my game.”
Osuji applied for work at the McDonald’s on Summit Avenue in Greensboro — along with about 324 others — in response to the company’s first national Hiring Day.
McDonald’s wants to recruit 50,000 workers nationwide, mostly for summer jobs. About 1,600 of those will be employed in North Carolina.
The company, which typically staffs up for summer, added an equal number of new workers last April. But this year, it compressed the process into one day.
Jacob Kennedy has never had a job. So on Tuesday the 17-year-old stopped by McDonald’s on Lehigh Street in Allentown to apply for one.
“Many businesses don’t want to hire people with no experience,” said Jacob, a junior at Notre Dame at Green Pond. “I want experience developing business strategies and attracting customers.”
He was among more than 30 people to apply at the restaurant, which had a billboard up to welcome job-seekers with photos of the McDonald’s employees who would be training them. On Tuesday afternoon, teen-agers trickled into the restaurant afterschool to apply.
The World’s largest fast-food franchise had a campaign to hire 50,000 new workers at 14,000 restaurants around the country, including about 100 people at more than 20 franchises in the Lehigh Valley.
The new openings include crew and management positions, part-time and full-time jobs. The average starting wage is $8 an hour, according to McDonald’s.
Since the beginning of the year, food service jobs have been one of the fastest growing segments of the job market, accounting for 63,500 jobs added, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average hourly wage across the sector is $11.72.
Christina Mueller-Curran’s family owns 16 McDonald’s franchises in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including one in south Bethlehem and the one on Lehigh Street. Each restaurant has about 50 employees, and her family hopes to hire five new people at each one, she said.
“We’re getting walk-ins, but the online applications are really coming in,” Mueller-Curran said. “The message is getting out there.”
Some people who showed up made good impressions. Others didn’t, particularly when they sought to make impressions on others’ bodies:
Three people were struck by a car and two others were arrested after a fight broke out at a McDonald’s during the company’s “National Day of Hiring” in Ohio.
The event aimed to hire thousands of people, but police say it was disrupted when a fight between two women got out of control, Fox 8 News reports.
“I was filling out my application when I saw two girls fighting,” said Joseph Shores.
Police say the fight was over a boy, and it started verbally and escalated into a physical fight that spilled into the crowd.After that, witnesses say the fight escalated as the two continued to fight inside a car.
“One girl was on top of the driver, beating her. Then the driver went forward, somehow it kicked into reverse, and the car went backward, hitting three people. It was crazy!” said Arnecia Patterson.
Three adults and one 17-year-old female were taken to the hospital for minor injuries.
Among the injured was the owner of the McDonald’s, as well as a manager.“We are cooperating with police. There is nothing more important than the safety and well-being of the people who go in and out of our restaurants,” said McDonald’s spokesman, Joe Woods.
But in the bulk of places such as Ann Arbor, MI, it involved no fights and raised fists — but raised hopes:
These and dozens of other job seekers flocked to the McDonald’s on Washtenaw Avenue in Ann Arbor on Tuesday, sitting down in booths for interviews as part of the fast-food chain’s first-ever National Hiring Day. With Michigan’s unemployment rate hovering at 10.3%, the company has attracted a lot of attention with its plan to hire more than 2,000 of the state’s residents, part of a push to add 50,000 workers nationwide.
During good economic times, flipping burgers and making fries was often viewed with disdain by many job hunters.
But after the worst recession in decades, McJobs are taking on a whole new look, attracting everyone from students and recent graduates to people trying to re-enter the workforce after layoffs.
“It’s a job,” said South, a 22-year-old Ypsilanti resident. “You can’t go wrong with working.”
During the first three months of this year, sales at McDonald’s 544 restaurants in Michigan reached levels normally not seen until the busy summer months, said Tony Tollis, human resource director for McDonald’s Michigan operations. The burger chain is ramping up hiring to keep up with this increased demand.
“Do you want a boost to the economy with that?”
UPDATE: The AP’s video report which suggests some of this is spin:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.