new york reuters taco bell wants to hire at least 5000 employees in one day it said on tuesday and is adding benefits for some general managers to sweeten the pot as restaurants struggle to hire enough workers to keep up with a surge in sales amid a broader us economic recovery taco bell part of yum brands inc will hold spot interviews on april 21 in parking lots at nearly 2000 taco bell locations where some candidates won’t even have to leave their cars to apply it has also added four weeks of annual vacation eight weeks of paid maternity leave and four weeks of new parent and guardian “baby bonding” time for general managers at companyowned locations taco bell has used such hiring events before but never at so many locations at once “it is no secret that the labor market is tight” now kelly mcculloch taco bell’s chief people officer said in a statement “total nightmare” is the way fat brands inc ceo andy wiederhorn describes the staffing situation for franchisees of his company’s restaurants which include johnny rockets and fatburger “the most recent stimulus check and unemployment benefits have been a catalyst for people to stay at home” instead of looking for work he said us job openings in the accommodation and food service industry increased by 104000 to reach 761000 on the last day of february from the prior month according to federal data on tuesday though fastfood companies and some other restaurant chains did well through the coronavirus pandemic as their customers turned to drivethru carryout and delivery they are seeing greater sales now that the weather is warmer many limits on dining room capacities are lifted and people with stimulus checks are eating out a measure of us services industry activity surged to a record high on monday amid robust growth in new orders the latest indication of a roaring economy boosted by increased vaccinations hiring cannot keep pace the us restaurant industry in march was still about 12 million employees short from the same month in 2020 according to us bureau of labor statistics data the gap is hardly limited to hospitality high jobless rates have not translated into a flurry of applications for open positions in manufacturing either on friday the labor department said 916000 jobs were created last month the most since last august including 53000 manufacturing positions that was the highest number of new factory jobs in six months one mcdonald’s corp franchisee said sales have soared as consumers spend their stimulus checks yet some mcdonald’s dining rooms may not reopen until the second half of 2021 because of labor shortages the franchisee said mcdonald’s franchisees are aiming to hire 5000 employees just in the state of ohio according to local media reports in late march restaurants are competing not just with each other for employees but with other industries as some hospitality workers who were laid off found other kinds of work – construction or real estate for instance  and are not coming back fat brands’ wiederhorn said “that waiter or waitress can sell a car just as well as they can sell a cocktail” wiederhorn said in las vegas which has about 16 johnny rockets and fatburger locations employees are working double shifts “it’s just hard it gets old and tiring” wiederhorn said “you can only do it for so long”