A McJob on the side, please
Sunday July 06 2008
UBIQUITOUS burger joint McDonald's has seen a spike in job applications from Irish people for the first time in nearly a decade.
Saddled with the "McJob" image of dead-end and low-paid work, entry-level positions at McDonald's were shunned by young Irish people in recent years. Many of the positions were filled by workers from Eastern Europe and Asia.
However, a drastic slowdown in the economy and an increase in unemployment, coupled with a marketing splurge by McDonald's, has led to a noticeable increase in temporary job applications from Irish people. At the same time, the numbers of foreign nationals applying for jobs has fallen.
"It's a little bit early to be drawing conclusions, but over the past six months McDonald's has seen an increase in the number of applications from Irish people for employment positions in our restaurants for the first time in approximately 10 years," said McDonald's HR director Michele Ryan.
"We have also seen a slight fall-off in the numbers of applications from foreign workers in the same period."
McDonald's has rejigged itself as an employer in recent years, hiking up its basic pay to well above the minimum wage and raining extra benefits and training on its staff.
"We believe that our advertising campaigns to celebrate the wide variety of cultures working in McDonald's in Ireland and the positive benefits this brings to our employees and to the company as a whole has played a large part in these figures," Ms Ryan added.
McDonald's employs about 3,500 people across 75 restaurants around the country.
- Nick Webb
