Mcdonalds Hires 62,000 in National Event - 1,000,000+ Applications Received

On one hand, I want to say good on them. While I'm sure this was mostly a PR thing, at a time when unemployment is high (especially for unskilled laborers) any news like "62,000 new hires" seems like good news.<p>On the other hand, 62,000 new employees nationwide breaks down to something like 3-4 new employees per store. This sort of large-scale, top-down action seems like it has huge potentials to create inefficiencies. How many of these new hires will be let go in a month because they're not needed? Maybe none, maybe there really were 62,000 positions to be filled nationwide and each store was able to hire the exact right number of folks.<p>Which brings me to my third hand, that is, a well-publicized "national hiring event" certainly was smart -- it probably brings in a much larger pool of applicants, letting them select more well-qualified people all at once, rather than on an ad-hoc basis.

So McDonalds is now approximately as selective as Harvard [1].<p>[1] <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/30/college-admissions-rates-_n_842807.html#s259866&#38;title=Clark_University_672" rel="nofollow">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/30/college-admissions-...</a>.

I'm confused. Isn't McDonalds franchised? How come it can direct its franchisees to hire people that it (maybe) does not need?<p>Can someone clarify this, since it appears that I'm the only one confused?

Why would McDonald's have been understaffed by 62,000 people? Unless they're planning on opening a ton of new stores, why would they suddenly need to hire so many at once?

PR.<p>Fast food chains have high turnover. People are always leaving, so even if McDonalds was slowly contracting, they'd be hiring new people at a high rate.<p>This press release does create a sense of optimism about the economy which might be justified. The economy looks pretty good from my position, but could look pretty lousy to somebody who's unemployed.<p>My feeling is that people have been getting pessimistic because of $4 gas and the talk about the federal deficit. I see a lot of evidence that companies of various sorts are moving forward with initiatives all over the place so I'm a believer in the recovery.