With younger workers less eager to take minimum-wage positions, McDonald’s has been left with roughly 250,000 jobs to fill this summer, which it plans to do by hiring older workers.
To bolster its workforce and help older workers find gainful employment, Mickey D’s will be posting open positions on AARP’s online job board. As USA Today notes, this isn’t the first time that McDonald’s has launched a campaign to hire older workers. However, this is the biggest and most concerted effort yet to fill those thousands of jobs. McDonald’s is also working with the AARP Foundation to launch a pilot program in five states that will help match lower-income older Americans with potential jobs.
“For the first time ever, five generations are now working together under the Arches,” said Melissa Kersey, McDonald’s U.S. chief people officer. Her statement is both an encouraging sign of workplace age diversity and a devastating indictment of the economy and the value placed on caring for older members of society.
While teenagers are the stereotypical fast food employee, restaurants are increasingly turning to older people who are eager to remain in the workforce. According to a 2018 Bloomberg story, recruiters love older workers as they tend to be punctual, experienced, friendly, and usually have a stronger work ethic than many of their younger cohorts.
The number of working Americans aged 65 to 74 is expected to grow 4.5% between 2014 and 2024 as people live longer. Ageism is, of course, alive and well, and full retirement is harder to achieve as savings dwindle. Plus, Americans are simply working longer than ever before in order to supplement what insufficient retirement savings they have. Either way, it seems as though retiring to a beach in Boca is increasingly becoming a pipe dream.
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