--- title: How to Calculate the Average Cost of Hiring an Employee description: What is the real cost of hiring? Businesses have many factors when calculating the cost to hire. Read more to find out how to calculate your true hiring cost. image: https://futureofwork.pepelwerk.com/hubfs/No-Such-Thing-as-Free.jpeg --- [![pepelwerk](https://www.pepelwerk.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/pw-footer-logo-768x768-1.png)](https://www.pepelwerk.com/) People [My AI Career Assistant](https://www.pepelwerk.com/my-ai-career-assistant/) [Discover In-Demand Jobs](https://www.pepelwerk.com/build-my-career/discover-in-demand-jobs/) [Make Wise Education Choices](https://www.pepelwerk.com/make-wise-education-choices/) Organizations AI & Hiring [AI Career Assistant for Orgs](https://futureofwork.pepelwerk.com/ai-career-guide-for-organizations/) [Discover People by Attributes](https://futureofwork.pepelwerk.com/discover-people-by-attributes/) [Build the Future Workforce](https://futureofwork.pepelwerk.com/build-my-future-workforce/) Programs [Host Career Exploration](https://futureofwork.pepelwerk.com/career-exploration-events/for-companies-to-promote-skills-based-jobs/) [Upskill, Reskill & Educate](https://futureofwork.pepelwerk.com/upskill-reskill-and-educate/) [Sponsor AI Career Assistant](https://futureofwork.pepelwerk.com/become-a-sponsor-for-career-development/) [Events](https://www.pepelwerk.com/career-exploration-and-hiring-match-events/) [Login](https://id.pepelwerk.com/login) [Create Account](https://id.pepelwerk.com/signup) People [My AI Career Assistant](https://www.pepelwerk.com/build-my-career/build-my-ai-career-assistant/) [Discover In-Demand Jobs](https://www.pepelwerk.com/build-my-career/discover-in-demand-jobs/) [Make Wise Education Choices](https://www.pepelwerk.com/build-my-career/in-demand-courses/) Organizations [AI Career Assistant for Orgs](https://www.pepelwerk.com/ai-career-guide-for-organizations/) [Build the Future Workforce](https://www.pepelwerk.com/build-my-future-workforce/) [Discover People by Attributes](https://www.pepelwerk.com/discover-in-demand-talent/) [Host Career Exploration](https://www.pepelwerk.com/career-exploration-events/for-companies-to-promote-skills-based-jobs/) [Upskill, Reskill & Educate](https://www.pepelwerk.com/upskill-reskill-and-educate/) [Events](https://www.pepelwerk.com/career-exploration-and-hiring-match-events/) [Login](https://id.pepelwerk.com/login) [Create Account](https://id.pepelwerk.com/signup) # How to Calculate the Average Cost of Hiring an Employee ![](https://futureofwork.pepelwerk.com/hubfs/No-Such-Thing-as-Free.jpeg) December 6, 2022 • pepelwerk The best aspect of the digital era is the free flow of information. You can find blog posts, mobile applications, podcasts, and videos on any topic. Including finding work. There certainly isn’t a shortage of free information. But is it? We look at the true cost of hiring from the perspective of employers.   ## Is there such a thing as "free" when it comes to the job market? Just because something is free doesn’t mean there are no strings attached. My mom always said if someone offers you something for free, it could be your most expensive experience. Everything costs. Time, money, energy, and now digital currency. When it comes to using the internet as a job market these wise words of my mother couldn’t be truer. “Free” access to job seekers, “free” information about getting the best candidates, and, of course, “free” access to hundreds, if not thousands of resumes as employers.  What is the real cost of hiring? Let’s explore the [Employer](https://workhub.pepelwerk.com/login) and the cost of hiring the candidates and the skills they need.   ## The Cost of Hiring as an Employer ### Time Count up all of your hours as an Employer related to every task in the hiring process. When you have the number, you will know what time investment you have made and you’ll start to see the factors that make up the cost of hiring staff. When it comes to entry-level work, it can double and triple because those jobs are typically “holding” jobs until someone better comes along, or “discovery” jobs. Meaning is this the right job and the right environment for the candidate? Both of those circumstances are normal for employers, but how we manage them needs to have a different process altogether. A bad hire is a miss for multiple reasons. Expectations and misaligned expectations are the worst time suckers.   ### Money What is the real cost of hiring in monetary terms? Using the old-school methods of the past 30 years, the average cost to hire someone is now $16,000. The elevated cost can be attributed to a handful of factors. One I’d like to emphasize is that by offering free information in exchange for a job, employers receive the “spray and pray” keyword-bingo resume dump. The resume business itself is an entire industry outsourcing the writing of 20 versions of someone’s work history to outsmart the evil algorithms so that an applicant can get their foot in the door. Nothing stops them from applying to every single job. Why would a marketing platform stop them? They want pay-per-click fees for your job posts.   ### Energy As an employer, you make hundreds of daily decisions for your business. The energy that it takes to manage the hiring process shouldn’t be the most complicated or the most frustrating one.   ### Digital currency An employer’s job post is worth billions. Jobs posted on public platforms let your competitors know what you’re doing, whether you want them to know or not. You help give rise to data systems using your information who then move to create “strategic advice” and “consulting” offerings to provide you with advice on how to manage and use that data. You allow another marketing platform to up-charge your company a price-per-click to get more eyeballs on your job. And, if you use applicant tracking systems, you’ve given them complex data to monetize and charge you while doing it.   ### The truth So, what is the true cost of hiring candidates? The number of jobs posted on job boards (aka marketing platforms) that aren’t available increases every year. Employers are struggling to protect their employer reputation from internet bots that scrape public postings from their websites to post on someone else’s marketing job board without permission. So much so, that employers have had to put warning signs on their websites letting interested applicants know of the scams. Companies do this because marketing platforms are lucrative. And, getting job seekers to visit their site and apply for free is big revenue for them. According to one of the oldest marketing platforms for jobs, they have over 7M resumes and job seekers. If that’s accurate, then we either have a lot of people looking for jobs that don’t have skills or job posts that aren’t active.   ## There's a better way: Matching Employers with Job Seekers Consider the true cost of hiring whenever you read or hear someone say “free”. 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Find out why](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/5458482/8f8aff35-9666-4663-ac97-830069f71780.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/5458482/8f8aff35-9666-4663-ac97-830069f71780) [Create AI Career Assistant](https://id.pepelwerk.com/signup?portal=people) [Add Your Org to the Talent Development Marketplace](https://id.pepelwerk.com/signup?portal=work) ![pepelwerk logo](https://www.pepelwerk.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/pw-footer-logo-new.png) Helping people evolve with work © 2018–2026 pepelwerk For People - [Just Starting Work Life](https://www.pepelwerk.com/build-my-career/why-young-adults-join-pepelwerk) - [Looking for a Career Change](https://www.pepelwerk.com/why-adults-in-career-transition-use-pepelwerk/) - [Military Transition to Civilian Job](https://www.pepelwerk.com/dedicated-resources-for-veterans/) - [Internships & Apprenticeships](https://www.pepelwerk.com/learn-on-the-job-opportunities/) - [Make Data Driven Decisions About Your Future](https://www.pepelwerk.com/make-data-driven-decisions-people/) - 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