What does it cost to hire each function?
№ 210 · Cost per hire by function
Definition
MetricInternal plus external recruiting cost divided by hires
UnitUSD per hire
Bar of recruiting plus sourcing plus onboarding cost per hire by function. Pull from recruiting and finance. Engineering usually highest; support lowest. Use to prioritize where to invest in employer brand vs. paid sourcing. Example: Engineering $42K, Sales $18K, Support $4K.
Benchmarks
| Bottom 30% | Median | Top 30% |
|---|---|---|
| $12,000 or more per hire | $5,000 to $5,500 per hire | Under $2,500 per hire |
US employers, 2025, SHRM and ANSI definition covering internal recruiting cost plus external vendor cost divided by hires, non-executive roles across all industries · The definitional spread here is larger than the benchmark spread, so read the basis before the number. SHRM's $5,475 covers recruiting cost and excludes most hiring manager and interviewer time. Appcast's cost per hire of $851 is advertising media only, and the two are frequently quoted side by side as if comparable. Interviewer time is the largest omitted line: Ashby measures 21 to 29 hours per technical hire and 16 to 18 per business hire, which at BLS loaded rates adds roughly $1,500 to $6,000 depending on who sits on the panel. Executive hiring runs about seven times non-executive, at $35,879. Agency fees, when used, dominate everything else at 15% to 25% of first-year salary for contingency and 25% to 35% for retained search.
Category split omitted: No two independent Tier 1-2 datasets publish cost per hire on the same function split and the same cost definition, so a function table here would be assembled from incompatible numerators.
When it looks bad
One or two functions carry a cost per hire several times the company median, and the gap traces to agency invoices rather than to role difficulty.
Engineering hires cost $18,400 each against a $4,900 company median, with 70% of the engineering figure being contingency fees at 20% of first-year salary.
What to do about it
- Build a referral pipeline before adding agency spend. Ashby finds referred candidates pass initial screens at 52% against 35% overall and accept offers at 89% in business roles and 84% in technical roles, so referrals cut both the cost numerator and the offer-decline waste.
- Convert the top three repeat-hire roles to an internal sourcing motion. Contingency fees run 15% to 25% of first-year salary, which is $9,000 to $15,000 on a $60,000 role against a $5,475 all-in median, so two internal placements per quarter typically fund the sourcing hire.
- Add AI-assisted application review before adding recruiter headcount. Employ reports 257.6 applications per job in 2025 and Ashby puts startup inbound at roughly 300 to 350 applications per hire, so review time, not sourcing time, is where recruiter capacity is going.
- Cap interview loops and count interviewer hours in the cost. Reporting cost per hire without the 16 to 29 hours of panel time hides the largest controllable line, and the cap is usually what makes the number move.
Sources
- SHRM Executive hires cost on average nearly seven times more than non-executive hires. Screening and interviewing each average 8 to 9 days inside the process. shrm.org ↗
- InterviewCost.com reporting SHRM 2025 Benchmarking Report figures SHRM's 2025 Benchmarking Report puts average cost per hire at $5,475 for non-executive roles and $35,879 for executive roles, up from the long-cited $4,700. interviewcost.com ↗
- Appcast Media-only cost per hire reached $851 by end of 2024 after a flat year. Technology had the highest apply rate at 6.41%. appcast.io ↗
- Appcast Cost per application and cost per hire both rose sharply in 2025 despite a softer labor market, driven by job board pricing and programmatic media models rather than candidate scarcity. prnewswire.com ↗
- HR Dive reporting Appcast Frontline standing-up roles, especially in healthcare, remained the most expensive and hardest to fill, while apply rates for office roles rose significantly. hrdive.com ↗
- Ashby 15 applicants are interviewed per hire, 18 technical and 13 business. Interviewer hours run 21 to 29 per technical hire and 16 to 18 per business hire. At startups under 25 employees, time to hire is 42 days with a recruiter involved versus 62 days without. Offer acceptance sits near 80%. ashbyhq.com ↗
- Ashby Median days to first fill: 52 junior, 63 mid-level, 71 senior. Technical roles take a median 75 days versus 60 for business roles. Interview loops run 17.9 days technical versus 14.4 business. Passthrough is 35% at screen and 81% at offer, and referred candidates pass screens at 52%. ashbyhq.com ↗
- HR Dive reporting Employ Inc. Applications per job rose to 257.6 from 207.2. Offer acceptance averaged 83.9%, highest in manufacturing at 91% and lowest in software and tech at 80.8%. New hires still employed at three months fell to 84.6% from 93.9%. hrdive.com ↗
- Pin reporting Staffing Industry Analysts and IBISWorld Contingency search runs 15% to 25% of first-year salary with 20% as the benchmark. Retained search runs 25% to 35% of total first-year compensation with $80K to $100K minimums. pin.com ↗
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics Private industry compensation cost averaged $46.60 per hour worked. Wages and salaries were 69.9% of employer cost and benefits 30.1%, implying a fully loaded cost of roughly 1.43 times base pay. bls.gov ↗