McDonald's Signing Bonuses: North Dakota Outlet Offering $300 To Potential Hires

In one North Dakota town, prospective McDonald's employees are netting a nice paycheck before they ever have to ask a customer if they want fries with that.

McDonald's workers are netting $300 bonuses just to sign on to work at the eatery in Dickinson, North Dakota, Businessweek reports. That's just one sign of a state currently reaping the benefits of an oil boom, sending the jobless rate plunging to 3.4 percent and engendering fierce competition among employers to find workers.

It's not uncommon for signing bonuses to proliferate during boom times. In the late 1990s Burger King offered managers a $5,000 signing bonus in a variety of cities to try to poach them from other fast food chains, according to a 1998 New York Times report. In Dallas, the school board tried to lure teachers with $1,500 signing bonuses during the same period of worker scarcity.

In North Dakota, the prospect of huge salaries is pushing prospective workers to change their lifestyles in a variety of ways. At Williston Sate College in Williston, North Dakota, students are dropping out, lured by the possibility of making $100,000 working on oil rigs, driving trucks or maintaining oil wells, according to CNNMoney.

The boom isn't only boosting the salaries of workers directly involved in the oil industry. With thousands of men moving to Williston to cash in on the boom, they're attending more strip clubs and strippers in the area have seen their salaries soar. In October, strippers claimed they could make $2,000 to $3,000 in tips in Williston, according to a separate CNNMoney report.

Even in a down economy with an elevated unemployment rate, some employers outside of the North Dakota are still using signing bonuses to lure top workers. Last year, investment bank Merrill Lynch gave some regional managers permission to use high signing bonuses to poach top talent from rival banks, according to an April report in Reuters.

In 2010, banks boosted their practice of offering new hires one-year "guaranteed bonuses," according a October report from The Institute for International Finance, an industry advocacy group.

But among America's biggest cities, where are the jobs? Find out below:

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10. Austin, TX

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Job postings per 1000 people: 87 Unemployment rate: 6.5 percent Civilian labor force in thousands: 918.6

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Job postings per 1000 people: 87
Unemployment rate: 6.5 percent
Civilian labor force in thousands: 918.6

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Comments

[Dan Crabtree]

01:19 PM on 02/07/2012

Mcdonads and other fast food joints are now hiring hispanic workers in place of american teenagers.Out of two in my hometown a full 90% of the workers are hispanic laborers,also goes for other fast food restaurants as well.

[ArchStanton400]

01:13 PM on 01/27/2012

No unions in ND. Those people up there are diehard "G-d and Country/Church on Sunday/gun rack in the truck back window/flag waving Republicans. Keep this in mind if you contenplate a move there. Oh yes and food costs 2-3 times up there too since everything has to be trucked in.

[BRex]

11:53 PM on 01/28/2012

What has you hating on North Dakota? Have you looked at the cost of living stats in this place?

[ur2nutty4me]

01:46 PM on 01/26/2012

I just can't believe some of these posts. The corporations have just got done stealing trillions and trillions of dollars from the people and your government. They spent the last 30 years giving away our technologies and jobs for other countries to prosper and or extort them for slave labor. Signed our children up for ungodly amounts of educational costs for education and training for jobs and position that do not exist or will become non existent. Caused millions to loose their jobs and homes, and put the adult population in the position that nobody will hire them because of there age, yet nuts on this blog blame the people for bad planning and foresight and not the government and corporations. They claim one job for every 6 people with a 9% unemployment rate when we all know it's well into the 20"s and most probably in the 30's. The ignorance and callousness of these posters is just plane disgusting. We are not Americans we have become tribes of cannibals.

[Chucktheman]

12:14 PM on 01/26/2012

Odd McDonalds can pay 12 bucks an hour & turn a profit in N Dakota but pay minimum wage in NY.

[werewolf90210]

11:50 AM on 01/26/2012

Lovely. I can't wait to ditch my job and move to North Dakota for a $300.00 signing bonus and get myself locked into a minimum wage job for x amount of time. Packing right now as I type.....

ND's "boom" must be related to all the Fracking going on in that State. I wonder of the hamburgers at the local MickyDee's (each made from over 60 different cows) will soon be as polluted as the ground water is?

[LoneTree]

01:27 AM on 01/27/2012

Hmmmmm, those grapes are pretty sour, eh?

[werewolf90210]

08:29 PM on 01/28/2012

My bio is true if you care to read it, so no...no sour grapes here thanks. That is closer to an hourly rate for me. ;) Cheers.

[bealebkk]

04:41 AM on 01/26/2012

A right to work state, gee...

[nyjjc]

10:23 PM on 01/26/2012

Yup - this is due to right to work laws, and has nothing to do with the oil boom mentioned in the article...

Now that the sarcasm is over: How many right to work for less states would you like me to list that have worse unemployment than MY state - the bluest state in the nation?

[ogbjones4real]

03:58 AM on 01/26/2012

Stripping's where the Money's at!...2-3K a night in tips... "would you like some Breast Tips w/that Shake!"

[werewolf90210]

11:54 AM on 01/26/2012

LOL. Don't you mean "stripping for a select few" is where the money is @? One can't exactly expect to earn 2-3K per night (really, 2-3K/night?) Maybe I need to start doing this on the side. I am unsure about a nightly payday in that range unless you got a body that justifies that kind of figure. Pun intended.

[LoneTree]

01:29 AM on 01/27/2012

Having spent 40 years in an occupation that took me to all the bungholes of the world, I can say with some authority that what's required to succeed in an oil boom town is quite a bit different from the standard for success in Fort Lauderdale.

[Donatella]

03:17 PM on 01/24/2012

McDonalds also earned record profits of $5.5 billion. This is great news for the medical industry, its future growth is assured.

[american-dolt]

10:29 PM on 01/23/2012

The way labor should be, Appreciated by the Employers.

[mrm3]

03:08 PM on 01/23/2012

North Dakota is hurting for workers because of the gas booms. It's the only state I know of that you can make like $50k+ sweeping a factory

[Donatella]

03:21 PM on 01/24/2012

It's oil actually and there aren't many factories there but plenty of support services for the oil industry. The state was hoping to have the pipeline from Canada take up all the new oil being pumped, it now needs to be trucked to distant pipelines or shipped by train. A pipeline would have been better and would have created jobs. Now the oil will go to China.

[mrm3]

03:32 PM on 01/24/2012

get your facts right. the oil was ALWAYS going to go to europe and latin america, even if the pipeline went thru the USA. That means ZERO taxes paid on the sale of that oil, so zero benefit to Americans except for some very temporary jobs

[mrm3]

03:33 PM on 01/24/2012

also -- it's gas mostly. i have 11 family members up there doing it

[ogbjones4real]

03:53 AM on 01/26/2012

Good!...you Mad!?

[mrm3]

09:08 AM on 01/26/2012

no are you?

[StopMakingSense2]

02:11 PM on 01/23/2012

Same with the Baghdad and Kabul locations.. Can you imagine what has to come with those happy meals!

[twospiritme]

05:28 PM on 01/24/2012

Saudi citizens get a new home and free college from their countries oil money? Err....our money.

[PermanentVacancy]

09:06 AM on 01/25/2012

Only for a small percent of the 1%!

[Patriot Games]

01:45 PM on 01/23/2012

Stippers yes! But are they Christian Strippers?

[fortressfountain]

12:21 PM on 01/23/2012

"A person has no pride if they accept a Gov. handout." People like Newt and the banks must be really ashamed of themselves.

[artgrrl74]

07:06 AM on 01/25/2012

thank you.

[FireThemAll2012]

08:34 AM on 01/23/2012

More jobs from a booming state economy with no Obama fingerprints on it.

[baldguy]

10:14 AM on 01/23/2012

Thanks for sharing....back to your village, please.

[J S K]

09:59 PM on 01/23/2012

booming because of demand for its finite natural resources, not because of good business legislation

[bealebkk]

04:38 AM on 01/26/2012

I understand somewhere in Kenya a village is missing its idiot.
...have you seen him?

[baxtron]

11:01 AM on 01/23/2012

I thought Obama stopped oil drilling, so now he doesn't? North Dakota has a state bank. Socialism at its finest. LMAO!

[pooka47401]

12:15 PM on 01/26/2012

At least a State owned Bank has to abide by Regulations like, "Don't rip off your customers".
And if you are under the impression that President Obama stopped oil drilling, then you need to change your TV program to a real News program.

[ur2nutty4me]

01:10 PM on 01/26/2012

This is a prime example of the damage that occurs when fracking contaminates the drinking water.

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