A TikTok video showing a massive queue of people waiting to attend a McDonald’s job fair has gone viral, highlighting the difficulty of finding work.
The video, posted by user cshibz on July 28, shows a long line of people stretching down the street outside the St. Louis Adult Learning & Continuing Education Centre in Kitchener, Ontario, where the fast-food chain was holding a hiring event.
The on-screen caption reads, “When you come for a McDonalds job fair and there’s like 300 people lined up down the street.” She continues: “Its literally impossible to find a job here! This was before the job fair even started. People must have been lined up since 7am.”
@cshibz Its literallt impossible to find a job here! This was before the job fair even started. People must have been lined up since 7am #mcdonalds #jobfair #kitchenerwaterloo #kitchener #ontariocanada #canada ♬ Oh No – Kreepa
The video has since accumulated over 524,500 views and sparked a lot of reactions from viewers. Some commenters compared the Canadian and U.S. job markets.
“I drove past today and had to do a second look wonder what concert tickets one sale,” one commenter wrote.
“Here in California you can walk into a McDonald’s and be on the schedule by the next day,” a commenter from the US added.
“In the US, there is a long line just to quit Mcdonalds,” another commenter echoed.
“But bro fr i’ve been trying to find a minimum wage job in Toronto for 4 months applied everywhere and there is noo placeee,” a further commenter shared.
Despite the video’s “times are tough” message, the labor market in Ontario isn’t in dire straits. Per the Toronto Star, more than a third of Ontario’s job vacancies remain unfilled as of March; and Canada saw its longest street of job gains in more than six years back in May. However, the unemployment rate in Canada rose to 5.4% last month. As the CBC reports:
“That’s still a million unemployed people, and that doesn’t tell the whole story,” said Jim Stanford, an economist and director of the Centre for Future Work, a research institute with operations in Canada and Australia.
“There’s probably another million underemployed people who have a job, but don’t work as many hours as they want to or use their full skills,” he said. “Then there’s lots of other people — probably another million — on the margins of the official labour force who would like to work but aren’t counted as officially unemployed.”
McDonald’s has been making headlines for various reasons recently. The brand has garnered attention for its collaboration with Krispy Kreme and its special edition Grimace shake. Additionally, a McDonald’s worker’s complaint about being understaffed and having to handle the workload of three people has further contributed to the media coverage.
The Daily Dot has reached out to cshibz via TikTok comment and to McDonald’s via their press email.
