McDonald's Corp said it will almost double the number of Chinese employees by the end of this year in order to follow its fast expansion plan in the country.

The world's largest fast food chain by sales revenue announced on Tuesday in Beijing that it will hire another 70,000 employees throughout the year in order to meet the needs of the massive number of store openings in the emerging market.

The US fast food giant said earlier that it would open an unprecedented 225 to 250 new stores nationwide this year and continue to increase its investment in people.

On May 20, McDonald's will launch a new recruitment model in which all McDonald's restaurants across China will set up recruitment zones for a one-stop recruitment process. Job seekers can go to any McDonald's restaurant in China to experience one-stop recruitment on May 20 each year.

McDonald's has developed very fast since it entering the Chinese market in 1990, it currently has more than 1,400 restaurants nationwide with over 80,000 employees. By 2013, the number of restaurants is expected to reach 2,000.

“As the leading global food service retailer, McDonald's has introduced advanced management expertise to China and provided tens of thousands of young people with good employment opportunities. This is a great initiative and an innovative new way to approach young people seeking jobs. It sets a good example for the industry,” said Guo Geping, president of China Chain Store and Franchise Association.

According to a survey on the Sina microblog, the focus of young people seeking their first jobs is earning some pocket money (58 percent), making new friends (25 percent) and improving themselves (8 percent). Yet working happily (50 percent), maintaining simple interpersonal relationships (20 percent) and learning new things (12 percent) are the most important criteria for their attraction to a job.

liwoke@chinadaily.com.cn