McDonald’s Is Hiring Hundreds of Thousands of Employees. Here’s Why.

McDonald’s is hiring up to 375,000 employees in restaurants across the U.S. this summer, the company announced on Monday.

The hiring push is the company’s biggest in at least five years, and the new roles will be for both corporate stores and franchises in anticipation of the busy summer season. The burger behemoth also announced that it’s opening 900 new restaurants in the U.S. within the next two years, or “by 2027.”

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“I often think about the time I spent working in our restaurants as a General Manager, and it was immediately clear that crew members are the heart and soul of this brand,” said Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, in a statement. “When you put on an apron for a shift at McDonald’s, you’re building skills you’ll carry with you for life.”

McDonald’s has around 13,000 locations in the U.S., and all are expected to participate in the hiring drive.

CNN notes that because most fast food restaurants have 100% turnover rates, the new hiring initiative likely won’t increase McDonald’s total workforce, which is around 800,000. The company famously says that 1 in 8 Americans has worked at a McDonald’s restaurant. Corporate and participating franchisees have invested over $240 million in the Archways to Opportunity program, which helps McDonald’s employees gain a high school and college education, according to the statement.

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The news comes as McDonald’s sales have been in decline. Earlier in May, the company reported its largest three-month sales drop since Q2 2020 in the height of the pandemic, per NBC. Same-store sales in the U.S. fell 3.6%, while analysts had forecasted about half of that (1.7%).

“Consumers today are grappling with uncertainty,” said McDonald’s Chairman and CEO Chris Kempczinski at the time.