News

McDonald’s ambitious hiring day attracts thousands

April 19, 2011

McDonald's ambitious hiring day has come and gone, but the verdict is still out on how close the company came to achieving its goal of hiring 50,000 employees.

The hiring day, first announced in early April, was held Tuesday. The company and its vast franchise system anticipated adding 50,000 new crew and management employees to its system and opened applications throughout the country.

Initial reports from hiring day seem to indicate a heavy turnout.

According to Reuters, large crowds turned out with resumes in hand at units from New Jersey and Atlanta to Tampa, Cincinnati and Detroit. Many units received hundreds of applicants.

In the Cleveland area, the event was blemished a bit when a fight broke out among the crowd. Three adults in the parking lot were run over by a car and transported to the hospital. According to Fox 8 in Cleveland, however, the melee was autonomous from hiring day and had to do with a personal conflict.

McDonald's held its first one-day hiring event in Texas in 2008. It experienced a favorable turnout, which influenced the company to expand the idea nationwide.

Ashlee Yingling, a spokesperson for McDonald's, said the company will officially report results from the day next week once all of the restaurants' information is collected.

In a statement made before the hiring day, McDonald's said the unprecedented event is expected to increase the company's collective employment by 7 percent.

Currently, McDonald's employs nearly 1.7 million workers in 117 countries and about 650,000 in its close to 14,000 U.S. locations. 

Last week, McDonald's was listed as one of the best companies for hourly workers by Working Mother Magazine. It was the only restaurant to make the list.