How do you calculate cost of vacancy?

The simplest formula is: (Annual revenue per employee ÷ 250 working days) × days the role is vacant. Add recruiting spend and overtime paid to cover the gap for a fully loaded number.

Why does cost of vacancy matter?

It converts time-to-fill from an HR metric into a finance metric. Once leadership sees the daily euro/dollar loss, faster sourcing and better pipelines become an obvious investment.

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Hiring Efficiency Guide

Cost of Vacancy: Formula, Examples & Free Calculator

Q: What is cost of vacancy?

Cost of vacancy (CoV) is the daily revenue or productivity a business loses for every day a role remains unfilled, plus the ongoing cost to recruit for it.

Every day a role stays open, your business loses money — in unmade revenue, missed deadlines, overtime, and burned-out teammates. This guide explains the cost of vacancy (CoV), the formula recruiters use, and how to turn it into a number your CFO will act on.

What is cost of vacancy?

Cost of vacancy is the financial impact of leaving a position unfilled. It captures two things at once: the productivity or revenue you lose without that person in the seat, and the recurring cost of trying to fill the role (job boards, agency fees, recruiter hours, hiring manager time).

Unlike cost per hire, which measures spend per closed requisition, CoV measures the cost of not closing it. The longer your time to fill, the bigger the bill.

The cost of vacancy formula

CoV = (Annual revenue per employee ÷ 250 working days) × Days vacant + Recruiting spend

Annual revenue per employee — total revenue ÷ headcount. For non-revenue roles, substitute fully loaded salary × productivity multiplier (1.5–2×).
250 working days — a standard year minus weekends and PTO.
Days vacant — from requisition approval to offer acceptance plus ramp-up.
Recruiting spend — job boards, agency fees, sourcing tools, internal recruiter time.

Free cost of vacancy calculator

Annual revenue / employee ($)Days vacantRecruiting spend ($)

Daily productivity loss

$480

Productivity loss to date

$21,600

Total cost of vacancy

$23,600

Want a deeper breakdown — including Recruitment Index, TPC and SV scoring? Run the full Recruitment ROI calculator →

A worked example

A 200-person SaaS company generates $40M ARR → $200,000 revenue per employee. A senior engineer role has been open for 60 days, and the team spent $3,000 on job boards and agency outreach.

($200,000 ÷ 250) × 60 + $3,000 = $48,000 + $3,000 = $51,000

Cutting time-to-fill from 60 to 30 days saves $24,000 on a single hire — usually more than a year of any sourcing tool.

How to reduce cost of vacancy

Shorten sourcing. Maintain a warm pipeline so day one isn't day zero.
Tighten the interview loop. Every extra round adds 3–7 vacant days.
Track the metric weekly. Pair CoV with time to fill and cost per hire so trade-offs are visible.
Automate matching. AI candidate matching surfaces qualified people in hours, not weeks.

See your real cost of vacancy

The Find & Hire ROI calculator quantifies CoV alongside Time to Fill, RI, TPC and SV — free, no signup required.

Open the ROI calculator