McDonald's serves up 2,500 new jobs in 2013 These remain challenging economic conditions for everyone but together with our franchisees, our continued focus on serving quality, affordable food and giving our customers a great experience is enabling us to keep growing our business and creating more jobs. Whilst today's job market is hugely competitive, we offer many people their first experience of work and we're focused on doing what we can to help more young people get their first foot on the career ladder. She added the types of roles available at McDonald's and elsewhere in hospitality, teaching customer service and communication skills, could help curb youth unemployment and prevent a "lost generation." On average, McDonald's receives around 18 job applications per post, up from around 15 before the recession, Ms McDonald said. She added there were more applications from families willing to work day and night shifts between them, where, for example, the mother works days and her husband nights. We've seen an increase in applications from families. There's still a lot of austerity and 2013 is going to be tough," she said. The company has been refurbishing its restaurants across the UK and opened another 16 sites last year. It now has a total of 1,210, with 40pc of them open 24 hours a day. Last year, Ms McDonald said British families are turning to the fast-food chain for their evening meals as the recession puts people off from visiting upmarket restaurants. Yesterday, the UK chief said she saw no signs of this trend reversing.