McDonald's raising total US employment 7%

Fast-food chain McDonald's Corp said on Monday that it plans to hire as many as 50,000 US additional employees later this month, citing improvements in its domestic business in recent months.

The new hires would increase the size of the hamburger chain's US workforce by 7% to 700,000 in all, and range from restaurant workers to senior managers.

McDonald's, which is holding the hiring event on April 19 at its restaurants and via its Website, said it and its franchisees would be spending an extra $518 million on wages and salaries on those new employees.

McDonald's operates some 14,000 US restaurants, 90% of which are run by franchisees.

McDonald's reported that February sales at its US restaurants open at least 13% rose 2.7% compared with a year earlier