McDonald’s and its franchisees plan to hire up to 375,000 people this summer in what the company says is its biggest hiring effort in years.
The fast-food giant also said that it plans to expand its domestic restaurant count by 900 by 2027, which would require a dramatic increase in the rate of expansion by the company’s operators, who own the bulk of the chain’s 13,557 U.S. restaurants.
McDonald’s plans to hire people at each of its restaurants and in all 50 states. The 375,000 new jobs represent close to half the 800,000 McDonald’s restaurant workers in the U.S. Most of the hiring represents turnover. But it will also be in response to business growth and new restaurant development.
The 375,000 jobs represent about 3% of the U.S. restaurant workforce.
“If you wear a uniform on the front lines of our McDonald’s restaurants, you gain a level of professionalism you might not elsewhere,” Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, said on Monday.
Erlinger was speaking at an event used to highlight the hiring and to mark the 10-year anniversary of the company’s Archways to Opportunity scholarship program, which has provided some $240 million in tuition assistance to 90,000 workers.
Also appearing at the event at a McDonald’s location in Columbus, Ohio, was Lori Chavez-DeRemer, secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor. “McDonald’s is sparking a ripple effect of prosperity for our workers, communities and the economy by expanding their workforce,” she said, calling the company a “cornerstone of American ingenuity.”
McDonald’s has been more aggressive of late in highlighting its role in the American economy, both as a provider of jobs and as a training ground for a surprising percentage of the workforce.
One in eight Americans has worked at a McDonald’s at some time in their lives, often as a teenager working their first true job. One in three Americans have worked in a restaurant, regardless of the concept.
The company’s Archways to Opportunity program enables workers at the chain’s restaurants to get a high school diploma, pay for college, receive free educational and career advising services or improve their English skills. Three-quarters of participants said lack of financial resources were their top barrier to furthering their education.
Nearly half of Archways participants who earned a college degree, 46%, were first-generation college students.
That includes Anamaria Monterroso-Jimenez, who has worked with McDonald’s for nearly eight years in Columbus, working for franchisee Scott Holowicki. She started as a crew member and working her way into human resources management and marketing. She is working her way through college with assistance from McDonald’s Archways program, hoping to get a degree in human resources.
“My goal has always been to be the first one in my family to go to college, and so far I am in the process of that,” she said.
Monterroso-Jimenez said her own knowledge of the program has helped her work with other McDonald’s employees to take advantage of it.
That includes her mother, who learned English and earned her own degree through the program. “There’s a saying my boss likes to say,” Monterroso-Jimenez said. “McDonald’s isn’t just burgers and French fries. It’s so much more. Just because you work in fast food, doesn’t mean your dreams end there.”
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.