McDonald's is hiring 50,000 new employees

The golden arches opened their doors today to applicants for 50,000 new jobs in honor of their National Hiring Day.

Thousands of job seekers headed to McDonald’s today to apply to a variety of jobs, ranging from cooks to management positions.

Berdj Sulahian, a glassblower, says he needed extra money and spent three months applying to jobs without success.

He heard about the hiring day through the news and thought it might be his ticket to a job.

“I figured working at McDonald’s would be a different working environment,” Sulahian said, “Fast-paced, kind of what I’m looking for.”

McDonald’s is also trying to shed the negative connotation of employment at the fast-food chain, once dubbed “McJobs.”

According to the company, about half of its franchisees and more than 75 percent of its managers started as store workers.

One of the reasons for the big hiring push at McDonald’s is that more locations are staying open 24 hours.

In Southern California alone, there are 3,000 jobs available.

In addition to walk-in applicants, McDonald’s said it is taking applications online.