Hundreds attend job fair

With 62 job openings at the six McDonald's in Carson City and Minden, the fast-food chain had little trouble attracting job seekers to a hiring fair on Tuesday.

By 4 p.m. about 140 people had already sat down for an interview at the McDonald's in south Carson City. The effort was part of the restaurant's National Hiring day, which included thousands who showed up at McDonald's nationwide to apply for jobs.

The company planned to hire 50,000 new workers in one day, boosting its staff by about 7 percent. Of those jobs, about 2,000 were in Northern Nevada, Central California and the Bay Area. It held a similar push for new hires last April.

Many job seekers in Carson City on Tuesday said they've been looking for work for months in a state where unemployment was 13.2 percent in March, still the highest in the nation.

Before the McDonald's on South Carson Street opened its doors for interviews on Tuesday, a line of job seekers had wrapped around the building, said Derrick Young, a supervisor and recruiting manager for the restaurant chain in the region.

"We have positions from crew all the way up to area supervisor," Young said, adding the restaurants need more workers to handle new coffee and smoothie products. On Tuesday, Young said he saw applicants range in age from their teens to their 60s.

"We've always been a first job company, but we're getting away from that," he said. "We're trying to change what people say the McJob is, so we welcome anybody from any walk of life."

For example, the average age of a fast-food worker is 29.5, up from 22 in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Among the applicants in Carson City on Tuesday was Bryan Sommers, 17, who's been looking for work since last summer.

"I don't know where else to go," Sommers said. "I've been applying literally everywhere ... there's been those days where I just spend the whole day looking for jobs, nothing else. Just wasting gas and never any outcome to it."

For Jullian Fawcett, 16, the job would be a way to help support his mom and cover his cell phone bill. He's applied for 13 jobs over the course of a year, but said many of those jobs are going to people much older than him who usually have families to support.

"Someone that needs the money more," Fawcett said. "Sometimes they just don't call back."

Sharon Kassity, who co-owns the six area McDonald's with her husband, Chris, said their workforce is diverse in age.

"We try to hire some young kids because the management training is so good and so relevant really to any job that they'll get in the future," Kassity said. "Years, and years, and years ago people used to work at McDonald's specifically because the management training was so excellent."

Kassity said she employs single moms and teenagers as well as seniors, which make up about 10 percent of her workforce.

"I think we look fairly balanced," she said. "You won't go into a store and see all youngsters. You won't go into a store and see all senior citizens. You'll probably see a pretty equal mix of them all."

Danitra Barnett, McDonald's U.S. vice president of human resources, said she couldn't specify what proportion of the 50,000 new jobs will be full-time.

McDonald's said it and its franchisees will spend an additional $518 million in the coming year because of Tuesday's hiring. That amounts to just over $10,000 per new employee.

Spokeswoman Danya Proud said the company preferred to focus on the net economic benefit of the new hiring, including the money that employees will spend in their local economies.

In Senate testimony last year, McDonald's said that about 75 percent of employees at company-owned restaurants are part-time, averaging 18 hours a week. Restaurant employees tend to stay an average of 17 months, HR chief Rich Floersch testified in December.

But McDonald's also touts how its jobs can grow into bigger opportunities. According to the company, 30 percent of its executives started in restaurants, as well as more than 70 percent of restaurant managers.

Julissa Zambrana, 19, said she's been looking for work for four months. Before that she had been making money by baby-sitting her nephew.

So far she's applied for a dozen jobs, but has had little luck.

"They give you the run around," Zambrana said of many potential employers. "They'll be like, we're not hiring anymore, we're still looking."

Tomas Munoz, 18, said he's applied for 10 jobs. Out of all of his friends, only one has a job - he's hoping to be the next.

"I thought it went pretty good," Munoz said of his interview at McDonald's.

• The Associated Press contributed to this report.