Employees who refer successful hires can earn an additional four months' worth of bonus.

The bonuses reflect the scale of demand in a province that ranked second nationally in foreign direct investment in 2025 -- of $5.5 billion -- after only Ho Chi Minh City.

Bac Ninh has nearly 3,400 factories producing electronics, components, garments, and logistics equipment for global supply chains and employs some 830,000 workers, the majority from other provinces.

Vu Tien Thanh, deputy director of the province's Employment Service Center, said some companies are recruiting staggering numbers: Goertek Vina needs 120,000 workers, Fukang Technology needs 60,000, Luxshare-ICT needs 40,000, and Newwing Interconnect Technology needs 12,000.

The electronics industry accounts for nearly 70% of all demand, followed by textiles at 13%, with 87% being for unskilled workers.

The province's training institutions produce just over 20,000 workers a year, meeting only 30% of demand.

Graduates are absorbed almost immediately upon completing training, but electronics and semiconductor firms face a shortage of quality technical talent.

Demand is most acute in the weeks before the Lunar New Year holidays, when tens of thousands of people are required.

But Thanh warned that the signing-bonus arms race is creating a retention crisis. A segment of the workforce has learned to treat bonuses as income rather than incentives, hopping between factories every few months to collect fresh payouts.

Each time they switch, they reset at a lower base wage with reduced social insurance contributions, eroding their long-term unemployment and pension benefits.

He said companies should add their signing bonuses to monthly wages.

The labor squeeze shows no signs of easing.

Industrial land occupancy in Bac Ninh exceeds 55%, and factories continue to expand.

With 42 countries and territories investing in the province, mostly in electronics, components, garments, and logistics, the gap between labor supply and demand seems set to widen further.