Thursday, May 19, 2011

Do You Want Fries with Your Euro-sized Unemployment?

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Teenagers of the world, unite in grief. Your chances of getting a part-time job in McDonald's just got that little bit slimmer.

The European arm of the fast food chain has ordered 7,000 touchscreen kiosks that will take orders and money (electronic money, not that outdated cash variety).

What's ironic about this is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Report for last month showed that one quarter of the jobs created in April in the US were created by McDonald's. If the labor market in Europe makes it more cost effective to replace the cashiers with touchscreen ordering kiosks, it's only a matter of time before McDonald's and other burger chains in the US "Euro-size" their staff into the unemployment line.

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