National Geographic

Over one million applicants turned out for McDonald's highly-publicized hiring spree last week.

McDonald’s Corp, the world’s biggest restaurant chain, said it hired 24 percent more people than planned during an employment event this month. McDonald’s and its franchisees hired 62,000 people in the U.S. after receiving more than one million applications, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. Previously, it said it planned to hire 50,000. The April 19 national hiring day was the company’s first, said Danya Proud, a McDonald’s spokeswoman. She declined to disclose how many of the jobs were full- versus part-time. McDonald’s employed 400,000 workers worldwide at company-owned stores at the end of 2010, according to a company filing.

The big hiring push was heralded by some as evidence as a surging economy, but you have to wonder what those same analysts say about the 938,000+ plus folks who were desperate enough to work at McDonald's but got turned away.

Via Metro Weekly:

A candlelight vigil is scheduled to take place at the McDonald's at 6315 Kenwood Ave. in Rosedale, Baltimore, at 7 p.m. on Monday night where on April 18 a transgender woman was physically attacked, before appearing to have a seizure, in an incident recorded on a portable phone by a McDonald's employee.

The victim says she plans to sue McDonald's. Hate crime charges have not yet been filed against her attackers.