McDonald’s said Monday it plans to hire up to 375,000 U.S. restaurant employees this summer, its biggest hiring push in years.
The Chicago burger giant said the beefed-up job openings at both company-owned and franchised stores are partly due to a U.S. expansion. The company, which has more than 13,500 restaurants in the U.S., plans to open 900 more by 2027.
U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer joined McDonald's U.S. President Joe Erlinger at a McDonald's restaurant near Columbus, Ohio, for the hiring announcement.
“McDonald’s is sparking a ripple effect of prosperity for our workers, communities and the economy," DeRemer said. "By expanding their workforce, the corporation will be driving investment and setting the standard for industry growth, whether as a launch pad for a different career or as a ladder for internal achievements.”
McDonald's stressed that the new hires will be for permanent positions. But that doesn't mean the company expects its U.S. workforce to exceed 1.1 million people by the end of the summer. The hiring takes into account that there are always a lot of workers coming and going at McDonald's.
McDonald’s said its last big summer hiring spree came in 2020, when it announced plans to add 260,000 workers. At the time, the company was reopening restaurants that were closed in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Its decision to staff up for this summer signals optimism that U.S. restaurant traffic will improve as the year unfolds.
In the January-March period, McDonald's U.S. same-store sales — or sales at locations open at least a year — slumped 3.6%. That was the biggest U.S. decline McDonald’s has seen since the pandemic shuttered stores, restaurants, schools and other public spaces in 2020.
McDonald’s said lower- and middle-income consumers, worried about inflation and the economic outlook, cut back on fast food during the January-March period.
But other restaurant operators seem to share its optimism. U.S. restaurants and bars added more than 46,000 jobs in March and April, according to the National Restaurant Association. Chipotle said in February that it hoped to hire 20,000 workers.
Overall hiring also continues to be strong. American employers added 177,000 jobs in April as the job market showed resilience despite the uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s trade wars.
McDonald's also used Monday's event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Archways to Opportunity program, which has given tuition assistance, English lessons and career services to more than 90,000 employees. McDonald's said the program has doled out $240 million in tuition assistance alone.
Anamaria Monterroso, an eight-year veteran at McDonald's, said Archways to Opportunity will help her become of the first member of her family to graduate from college. Monterroso is currently working toward her degree in human resources at Colorado Technical University.
“Just because you work in fast food doesn’t mean your dreams end there," Monterroso said.
This photo taken from video shows McDonald’s Senior Vice President and Chief Impact Officer of North America Michael Gonda, left, United States Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Lt. Gov. of Ohio Jim Tressel and McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger inside a McDonald’s restaurant on Monday, May 12, 2025, in Delaware, Ohio. (AP Photo)
FILE - A sign with the company logo stands over a McDonalds restaurant on South Colorado Boulevard in Denver, Sunday, Oct. 24, 2021. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)
ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
