McDonald’s announced a plan to hire 375,000 employees across the U.S. this summer.
The plan, announced on Monday, is one of the fast-food chain’s largest hiring pushes in years, according to a news release. It goes hand in hand with McDonald’s goal to open 900 new restaurants in the U.S. by 2027 and its plan to serve more customers during summer months.
Joe Erlinger, McDonald’s president for the U.S., met with Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer at a location just outside of Columbus, Ohio, to announce the news. The hiring will be across McDonald’s company-owned and franchised locations, according to a company spokesperson.
The news comes amid the Trump administration’s push for businesses to invest more in the U.S. The White House reported that it secured more than $5 trillion in new investment promises in the U.S. during Trump’s first 100 days in office.
Those investments include a $500 billion plan in manufacturing by Apple, and $500 billion investment plans announced by Nvidia and by a coalition of companies including SoftBank and Oracle.
Earlier this month, McDonald’s reported its worst quarterly sales for the U.S. since the height of the pandemic in 2020.
The restaurant company reported U.S. same-store sales fell 3.6%, the largest three-month drop since Q2 2020, when they plunged 8.7%. Forecasts had been for a decline of just 1.7%.
McDonald’s executives told investors during a call that the reason for the decline was that ‘people are just visiting less,’ adding that traffic among middle-income diners fell by “nearly double digits” alongside an ongoing drop-off among low-income ones. As an example, they said more people appear to be skipping breakfast entirely to cut back on spending, or eating breakfast at home.
The fast-food chain has over 38,000 locations in over 100 countries, and is aiming for 50,000 by 2027.