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Cost of vacancy calculator
An unfilled vacancy costs a UK employer about £458 a week at a £35,000 salary, and about £785 a week at £60,000 — the output the role would have produced, less the salary that is not being paid while the seat is empty. This calculator works that out for any salary and any number of days open, using the ONS labour share of income (59.7%, 2026 Q1) for the output figure and our own median time to fill of 42 calendar days across 46 filled roles as the starting point. Every step of the sum is shown, so you can disagree with any of it.
Your figure
A role paying £35,000, open for 42 days:
| Output the role would have produced | £6,785 |
|---|---|
| Salary not paid while it is empty | −£4,038 |
| Net cost of the vacancy so far | £2,746 |
| Every further week it stays open | £458 |
| Every further month | £1,962 |
Cover, overtime, delayed work and the load on the people covering it are all real and none of them can be read from a public dataset, so none of them are in this. It is a floor, not a total.
What an empty seat costs, by salary
Net of the salary not being paid, at the ONS lost-output factor of 1.68. Read a row rather than filling anything in.
| Salary | Per working day | Per week open | Per month open |
|---|---|---|---|
| £25,000 | £65 | £327 | £1,401 |
| £30,000 | £78 | £392 | £1,681 |
| £35,000 | £92 | £458 | £1,962 |
| £40,000 | £105 | £523 | £2,242 |
| £45,000 | £118 | £588 | £2,522 |
| £50,000 | £131 | £654 | £2,802 |
| £60,000 | £157 | £785 | £3,363 |
| £70,000 | £183 | £915 | £3,923 |
| £80,000 | £209 | £1,046 | £4,484 |
· last verified 10 September 2026 · source: ONS FZLN (2026 Q1) and our own filled-role records · regenerated when ONS publishes
What a vacancy costs by sector, at our median time to fill
Time to fill is measured on the roles we filled and published, and the count behind each median is beside it — these are small samples and our own, not a national average. The pay is the median of what employers are advertising right now for the leading role in that sector.
| Sector | Median time to fill | Advertised pay, leading role | Net cost of the vacancy |
|---|---|---|---|
| IT & technology | 26.5 days (median of 2) | £33,000 IT Support Analyst, n=70 | £1,665 |
| Accountancy & finance | 29 days (median of 5) | £48,000 Management Accountant, n=52 | £2,600 |
| Legal | 32 days (median of 3) | £28,000 Paralegal, n=44 | £1,674 |
| Building services & trades | 35 days (median of 4) | £65,000 Mechanical Estimator, n=82 | £4,250 |
| Transport & logistics | 36.5 days (median of 2) | £50,000 Transport Manager, n=76 | £3,456 |
| Healthcare & clinical | 40 days (median of 1) | —: under the reporting floor (no data) | no pay figure, so no cost |
| Insurance & financial services | 40 days (median of 3) | £40,000 Account Handler, n=27 | £2,989 |
| Procurement & supply chain | 41 days (median of 1) | —: under the reporting floor (no data) | no pay figure, so no cost |
| Motor & automotive | 42 days (median of 1) | —: under the reporting floor (no data) | no pay figure, so no cost |
| Utilities & infrastructure | 42 days (median of 3) | £57,000 Site Supervisor, n=74 | £4,472 |
| Construction & property | 44 days (median of 3) | £60,000 Quantity Surveyor, n=64 | £4,932 |
| Charity & community | 47.5 days (median of 2) | Support Worker: under the reporting floor (n=4) | no pay figure, so no cost |
| Sales engineering | 58 days (median of 2) | £45,000 Field Sales Engineer, n=42 | £4,876 |
| Engineering & manufacturing | 60 days (median of 3) | £55,000 Design Engineer, n=64 | £6,165 |
| Care & social care | 63.5 days (median of 4) | £55,000 Registered Manager, n=82 | £6,576 |
| Facilities & cleaning | 68 days (median of 1) | —: under the reporting floor (no data) | no pay figure, so no cost |
| Precision machining & maintenance | 74 days (median of 5) | £53,000 Production Manager, n=60 | £7,327 |
| Recruitment | 76 days (median of 1) | —: under the reporting floor (no data) | no pay figure, so no cost |
Pay figures read from live job adverts on Adzuna (adzuna.co.uk). A sector whose advertisers mostly do not state pay gets no figure rather than an estimated one — that is a finding about the sector, not a gap in the table. Check the band for a specific role.
· last verified 10 September 2026 · source: ONS FZLN (2026 Q1) and our own filled-role records · regenerated when ONS publishes
What shortening it costs
The reason this calculator exists is that the cost of filling a role is usually smaller than the cost of not filling it, and almost nobody puts the two next to each other. A £399 +VAT advert is about 0.9 weeks of an empty seat at a £35,000 salary. Most adverts are live the next working day after you approve the copy.
| Package | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | £399 +VAT | Multi-board distribution · 28-day live listing · Employer dashboard access |
| Premium | £499 +VAT | Everything in Standard · Featured listing badge · Social media promotion |
| Premium Plus | £599 +VAT | Everything in Premium · Dedicated account manager · Bespoke advert copywriting |
If you would rather hand the whole search over, Guaranteed Hire is a flat fee by salary band from £1,500 +VAT with a 100% refund if the role is not filled. Neither product is priced on the number above — it is here so the decision is made against a figure rather than a feeling.
Fair questions
How much does an unfilled vacancy cost per day in the UK?
At a £35,000 salary it works out at about £92 for each working day the seat is empty — the output the role would have produced, less the salary you are not paying while it is vacant. At £60,000 it is roughly £157 a working day. The figure scales with pay because pay is the only thing in the sum that is specific to the role.
Where does the lost-output figure come from?
From the Office for National Statistics. Its labour share of income series (FZLN, 2026 Q1) puts employee pay at 59.7% of income across the whole UK economy, so every £1 of pay sits alongside about £1.68 of output. It is a national average across every industry — not a measurement of your business — and the calculator lets you change it.
Why do you subtract the salary that is not being paid?
Because it is not being paid. While a seat is empty the salary stays in the bank, so counting the whole of the lost output as a cost overstates it by roughly three fifths. We show the output lost, the pay not spent and the net figure, and we lead with the net one.
Is the cost of a vacancy really this low?
It is the part that can be evidenced. Cover, overtime, a delayed project, a customer who went elsewhere and the load on the people covering the work are all real and none of them can be read from a public dataset, so they are not in the sum. Treat the number as a floor rather than a total.
How long does a vacancy normally stay open?
Across the 46 roles we have filled and published, the median is 42 calendar days, and it moves a long way by sector — from 26.5 days to 76. Those are our own records rather than a national figure, and the count behind every median is published beside it.
Before you advertise the role
Check what the role pays locally so the advert is not the reason it stays open, have the advert written free, and see how long comparable roles took us to fill. If you want to know how your own hiring looks to the people you are trying to attract, the free recruitment health check measures it.