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Glassdoor released its top job for 2022 based on earning potential, overall job satisfaction rating and number of job openings

A six-figure salary and the option to work from home? It sounds too good to be true.

Job openings are rising, while workers continue to quit. The number of vacant jobs hit 10.9 million in December, up from 10.6 million the previous month, the Labor Department said this week. The job openings rate was steady at 6.8%.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made people reassess the role of work in their lives. Workers are burned out and looking for better benefits, shorter commutes, higher salaries and — critically — a more accommodating work-life balance.

If they spend eight hours a day at work, they don’t want to be unhappy and stressed out. Some workers, some polls suggest, are even fed up with how their employer treated them during the pandemic, and told their boss they had enough.

“Wages aren’t keeping up with inflation, so the only way for most employees to either get a step up in salaries is either to find a new firm or have one foot out the door,” Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, told Barron’s.

On Wednesday, the careers website Glassdoor released its annual 50 Best Jobs in America for 2022. With so many workers on the move as we enter Year 3 of the pandemic, it makes particularly timely reading.

Once again, tech workers came out on top. Enterprise architects were No. 1 on Glassdoor’s list. They have a median base salary of $144,997 a year, 14,021 job openings and a satisfaction rating of 4.1 out of 5.0, according to the report.

A shortage of talent has pushed companies to offer sign-on bonuses of up to $100,000 for some high-end speciality jobs, an analysis of job advertisements from 4,000 of the world’s largest companies concluded.

Sign-on bonus have increased across all sectors by 454%, rising to 57,123 advertised positions in August 2021 from 10,312 in August 2020, according to research released Tuesday by GlobalData DATA, , an analytics company.

The U.S. government on Friday said the economy created just 235,000 new jobs last month — one-third of Wall Street’s DJIA, -0.76% forecast and the smallest gain since January. President Biden blamed the coronavirus delta variant.

“It’s plausible that many employees decided to ‘sit out’ the delta spike and use the time to search for jobs that offer better pay and safer work conditions,” Aneta Markowska and Thomas Simons, economists at Jefferies, wrote in a note.

Others, however, say people need more incentive to work. “A supply crunch for talent has pushed companies to go the extra mile,” the GlobalData report said. The healthcare sector saw the most sign-on bonuses, it added.

An advertisement for a “physician of neurology multiple sclerosis” and also for a “general dentist” last month both had a sign-on bonus of up to $100,000. Sign-on bonuses were also offered for sales personnel and lorry drivers.

“We are seeing sign-on bonuses ranging from $150 to $100,000, as companies are desperately trying to entice new employees amid the current shortages,” said Ajay Thalluri, business fundamentals analyst at GlobalData.

“Roles that involve a shared workspace or are front office are the most likely to offer a sign-on bonus during the pandemic due to employees coming into contact with others,” he added.

Article By Quentin Fottrell Via MarketWatch.com

Quentin Fottrell is MarketWatch’s personal-finance editor and The Moneyist columnist for MarketWatch.com. You can follow him on Twitter @quantanamo.