Manufacturers are paying relocation costs and bonuses to move new hires across the country at a time of record-low unemployment and intense competition for skilled workers.
Half a million U.S. factory jobs are unfilled, the most in nearly two decades, and the unemployment rate is hovering at a 50-year low, the Labor Department said Friday. At the same time, Americans are moving around the country at the lowest rate in at least 70 years.
To entice workers to move, manufacturers are raising wages, offering signing bonuses and covering relocation costs, including for some hourly positions, The Wall Street Journal reports. They are betting that spending on higher wages and moving incentives will help them find workers to fill their backlogs of orders.
Rather than just extending these benefits as part of job offers, factories are also advertising them in postings to encourage farther-away candidates to apply. On ZipRecruiter Inc.’s job-listing site, 1.6% of manufacturing positions include a pledge to pay moving costs, up from 1% in 2017.
The relocation payments and other perks some manufacturers have added recently coincide with a run of difficulties for the industry overall. The U.S. factory sector contracted for the fifth consecutive month in December, according to the Institute for Supply Management. Read the full story.
