Subway is hiring 40,000 workers in May as it tries to return to prepandemic hours

• Subway plans to hire 40,000 workers in May, but that may not be easy.
• Subway closed 1500 stores in 2020 and franchisees say returning to normal hours is difficult due to a lack of workers.
• Other restaurant chains are holding hiring events, adding extra perks, and, in some cases, raising wages to find staff.

Subway is the latest fast food company to announce a hiring spree as retailers struggle to find enough workers.

The sandwich chain said Tuesday it plans to hire 40,000 employees across its 20,000 US restaurants ahead of summer. The push comes as 42% of small business owners surveyed in March said they had job openings they can't fill.

Restaurants are looking to return to normal and reopen dining rooms as COVID-19 restrictions ease, but many companies are having trouble finding employees. Some are rolling out extra incentives and holding large-scale hiring events to screen swaths of candidates at once to entice applicants.

Read more: Subway's 'dirt-cheap' startup costs for franchisees just increased by thousands even as the company's unit count declined by 1,600

Subway will let workers apply by text message, a move that a Florida McDonald's franchisee with 60 locations told Insider has been successful. Other prominent chains like IHOP and Taco Bell are also holding events like drive-thru interviews to make applying easier.

If these events can get candidates in the door, owners hope new perks can get them to actually take the job. As Chipotle announced higher wages and Starbucks touts its mental health and educational benefits, Subway says new hires will be eligible for academic scholarships, "preferred rates on higher education tuition," and other "health and wellness" perks.

In Fall 2020, Subway franchisees balked when the chain told them to resume pre-pandemic schedules and returned to enforcing the number of hours restaurants had to be open. Franchise owners were left to come up with individual solutions to fill in gaps in workers. One franchise owner said that he added a $2 per hour bonus while increased unemployment benefits continue, along with a $300 signing bonus.

Subway was one of the hardest-hit chains of the pandemic, closing a net 1,557 restaurants in 2020 - or 10% of all its stores.

"I think everyone in the industry - it's not unique to Subway - is struggling to keep stores open from lack of staff," a Subway franchisee told Insider.

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