Comment by Macha

How many countries do McDonald's use this system in? It's a global company, and as big a market as the US is, McDonalds themselves claim they have "over 38,000 stores" so the US is less than half.

Then how often does the typical McDonald's have a vacancy? These are not good jobs that would cause low turnover, especially once you get into touristy markets where demand is very seasonal. Let's say 10 openings per store per year.

Finally when your applicant pool is basically "every college student, unqualified adult, and even some teenagers", 200-300 applications per opening seems entirely plausible. Low even, from the times I've seen the entry level hiring process close up.

Of course, the thing that confuses people with application numbers like this is they assume that there's no overlap. The same people generally apply to all the jobs in an area so the local McDonalds getting a few thousand applications a year might only be a few hundred unemployed people.