Key points:
- While it has declined since peaking in 2022, the share of US job postings mentioning signing bonuses is still well above pre-pandemic levels.
- Employer preferences appear to have shifted toward one-time signing bonuses over more-permanent wage hikes as a flexible and cost-effective recruitment strategy.
- Signing bonuses are most commonly used in healthcare and other largely in-person roles, while knowledge work and remote roles show much lower utilization.
Our monthly Labor Market Update examines important trends using Indeed and other labor market data. Our US Labor Market Overview chartbook provides a more comprehensive view of the US labor market. Data from our Job Postings Index — which stood 11% above its pre-pandemic baseline as of January 24 — and the Indeed Wage Tracker (including sector-level data) are regularly updated and can be accessed on our data portal.
The US labor market has a lot of positive momentum to kick off 2025. Layoffs and unemployment remain historically low and show early signs of stabilization at healthy levels. The Indeed Job Postings Index has also moved sideways in recent months, with the level of job postings hovering consistently between 9-15% above pre-pandemic levels since June 2024. This is a key indicator that employer demand for workers may have stabilized at relatively solid levels after two-plus years of slow, steady declines. Resilient employer demand is also evident in the elevated share of job postings offering signing bonuses. While the share has fallen in recent years, it remains well above pre-pandemic levels and gives a more complete picture of the price employers are willing to pay to attract workers.
In December 2024, about 3.7% of all US job postings on Indeed mentioned a signing bonus, nearly double the pre-pandemic average of 1.9%. Mentions of pay upon hire began rising in the second half of 2020, peaked at 5.6% in September 2022, and have declined consistently since. This pattern mirrors other labor market trends over the same period, including rising and falling wage growth, and the tightening and subsequent easing of job openings. This suggests that signing bonus data provides another valuable perspective on labor market tightness and recruiting intensity.
Overall, recruiting intensity and hiring activity have faded in recent years, with the current rate of hiring standing at the lowest level since 2013 (excluding April 2020’s pandemic-impacted data). However, the still-elevated signing bonus share suggests that hiring employers still feel the need to compete for workers. This becomes even more clear when compared to wage growth. In the aftermath of the pandemic, both wage growth and the prevalence of signing bonuses grew rapidly, peaking around the same time. However, their trajectories diverged when wage growth began to cool several months before signing bonuses, and did so at a much faster rate. These diverging trends suggest a shift in employer recruiting strategies, favoring one-time signing bonuses over raises and across-the-board wage hikes, which carry a more significant long-term cost.
The overall labor market has undeniably cooled from its peak in 2022, but employer demand remains strong. The use of signing bonuses offers a clear signal of which occupations may be facing the greatest pressure to hire — most notably in healthcare and in-person roles. In December 2024, the share of postings with signing bonuses was highest for veterinary, nursing, physician & surgeon, beauty & wellness, and medical technician roles. Over the same period, job postings in these five occupations were also at least 19% above pre-pandemic levels. In contrast, the five occupational groups that utilized signing bonuses the least also had fewer postings overall in December compared to pre-pandemic norms.
The labor market has definitively cooled, but has largely stabilized at a healthy level where signing bonuses remain vital for recruiting workers, especially for highly in-demand roles, including healthcare and in-person services. With reduced employee turnover, an aging population, and a projected slowdown in immigration, employers will continue to face a competitive hiring landscape. Utilizing signing bonuses — in addition to offering benefits and/or employee flexibility like hybrid or remote work — may be good alternatives to stand out in the hopes of recruiting workers without committing to long-term wage increases.
Methodology
Data on seasonally adjusted Indeed job postings are an index of the number of seasonally adjusted job postings on a given day, using a seven-day trailing average. February 1, 2020, is our pre-pandemic baseline, so the index is set to 100 on that day. We seasonally adjust each series based on historical patterns in 2017, 2018, and 2019. We adopted this methodology in January 2021. Data for several dates in 2021 and 2022 are missing and were interpolated. Non-seasonally adjusted data are calculated in a similar manner, except that the data are not adjusted to historical patterns.
The number of job postings on Indeed.com, whether related to paid or unpaid job solicitations, is not indicative of potential revenue or earnings of Indeed, which comprises a significant percentage of the HR Technology segment of its parent company, Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. Job posting numbers are provided for information purposes only and should not be viewed as an indicator of the performance of Indeed or Recruit. Please refer to the Recruit Holdings investor relations website and regulatory filings in Japan for more detailed information on revenue generation by Recruit’s HR Technology segment.
We track signing bonus offerings by tallying US job postings on Indeed that mention paying upon hire with terms like “signing bonus,” “sign on bonus,” “signing incentive,” or “bonus for signing on” in the job description. Data is not adjusted for seasonality or changes in job mix, but a 3-month moving average is used. Data from April 2023 onward were revised from previous publication releases.
