This Summer, Jobs Come With a Hefty Signing Bonus

As companies grow more desperate to fill open roles, some dangle incentives worth $1,000 or more

By Patrick Thomas of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"Signing bonuses are usually reserved for professional athletes and a privileged few white-collar professionals. Not this summer.

As U.S. employers’ search for hires increases in urgency—especially in the manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and food-service industries—truck drivers, hotel cleaners and warehouse workers are being offered signing bonuses of hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

Nearly 20% of all jobs posted on job search site ZipRecruiter in June offer a signing bonus, up from 2% of jobs advertised on the job search site in March. The states with the highest shares of job listings that include a signing bonus are Iowa, Missouri, Vermont, Wyoming and Arkansas, according to ZipRecruiter labor economist Julia Pollak.

Hiring bonus offers start at $500 and quickly rise from there. Job postings across sectors show that a $1,000 hiring bonus is quickly becoming table stakes in recruiting hourly workers who make between $16.50 and $25 an hour. The $1,000 hiring bonus is advertised on jobs listed for apartment-complex groundskeepers in Texas, movers in Florida, cabinet makers in Georgia, housekeepers in Wisconsin, pool cleaners in New Mexico and welders in Ohio, among others."

"Cash signing bonuses are attractive to employers because they are a one-time cost and don’t require raising wages for the long term or paying out greater benefits indefinitely, such as more paid vacation time, said Brad Hershbein, senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. The bonuses appeal to potential employees, especially new college graduates and lower-wage workers, who may need the cash up front for expenses such as rent payments, he added."