Economic McNuggets

I don’t know what category this story falls into: economics, tragi-comedy, restaurant news, end-of-days, whatever. But McDonalds, that ultimate symbol of American culture, devoted yesterday to a highly-advertised big-splash hiring drive.

The stated goal was to add 50,000 employees to the 650,000 already working there in the US.

Which sounds impressive until you consider that we’re not talking full-time employment, with sustainable income, benefits or any sort of security. (In fairness, I can’t think of any job that offers security, except corporate executive managers, who seem to get paid spectacularly well even when they get fired.) In fact, employment at McDonalds brought us the neologism McJobs, which the OED defines as “an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects.” & this hiring spree includes a attempt to change perception of them as a corporate employing entity.

Another troubling aspect of this story is the news that many of the McJob seekers and holders are middle class adults with families to support, not the teenagers working after school that we picture in the uniforms and visors.

The smug joke about post-university career prospects used to be that the graduate with an engineering degree asks, “How does it work?”; the graduate with an accounting degree asks, “How much will it cost? And the graduate with a liberal arts degree asks, “Would you like fries with that?” Evidently the engineers and accountants are now competing with teenagers, art historians and recent immigrants for part-time jobs at minimum wage.

From reports on the web from local news outlets, McDonalds’ National Hiring Day campaign has been successful. Restaurants from Hawaii to Maine have been stormed by applicants.

Thing is—like the product the corporation sells—these jobs are bigger on form than substance, which is bad for the individuals and the economy. Great for the stockholder and corporate management, though, so I guess we can stamp “mission accomplished” over it and move on.