Cost to hire an employee in 2026: average cost per hire
Last updated · By the Scowter team
Short answer
The most cited U.S. benchmark is from SHRM. Its 2025 benchmarking, released on 15 October 2025, put the average cost per hire at $5,475 for nonexecutive roles and $35,879 for executive roles. These figures cover recruiting costs only. Pay, benefits and training come on top. Your own number may be far from the average.
What is the average cost per hire?
SHRM, the U.S. HR body, surveyed 2,371 members between 9 January and 3 March 2025 and published the results on 15 October 2025. The average cost per hire was $5,475 for nonexecutive roles and $35,879 for executive roles. SHRM notes that executive hires cost nearly seven times as much.
As of 12 November 2026 this was the latest SHRM release we could open and confirm. Some websites quote newer or median figures. We have left them out because we could not confirm them at the source.
What are the benchmarks side by side?
The table lists the figures we confirmed, with their dates. The UK figures are medians and the U.S. figures are averages, so do not compare them directly.
| Benchmark | Figure | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. average cost per hire, nonexecutive | $5,475 | SHRM, released 15 Oct 2025 |
| U.S. average cost per hire, executive | $35,879 | SHRM, released 15 Oct 2025 |
| Recruiting budget as a share of the HR budget, U.S. | Average 26%, median 20% | SHRM, released 15 Oct 2025 |
| UK median cost per hire, senior managers | 3,500 pounds | CIPD report 2026, via Omni RMS |
| UK median cost per hire, other employees | 2,000 pounds | CIPD report 2026, via Omni RMS |
| U.S. private employer cost per hour worked | $46.89, of which benefits $14.07 | BLS, June 2026 data |
How do you calculate cost per hire?
The formula is simple. Add your internal recruiting costs and your external recruiting costs for a period. Divide by the number of hires in that period.
Use the same period and the same cost list each time, or the number will not be comparable from year to year.
- Internal costs: recruiter and HR pay, hiring manager interview time, referral bonuses, recruiting software.
- External costs: job advertising, agency or search fees, assessments, background checks, careers events, candidate travel.
- Hires: everyone who accepted and started in the period.
What do the averages leave out?
Cost per hire is only the cost of finding and signing the person. It leaves out several things.
- Pay and benefits. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that private employers spent $46.89 per hour worked on compensation in June 2026. Wages were $32.82 and benefits were $14.07, which is 30.0% of the total.
- Onboarding and training time.
- Lost output while the role is empty.
- The cost of a hire that does not work out.
- Quality. SHRM found that only 20% of organizations track quality of hire, so a low cost per hire may hide weak results.
Why does cost per hire differ so much?
An average hides a wide spread. Senior roles cost more because searches are longer and often use search firms. Rare skills cost more because fewer people apply. A company with a strong employer name and many referrals pays less.
Time adds cost too. SHRM describes the process from job posting to offer acceptance as highly segmented, with screening and interviewing alone averaging 8 to 9 days each. Each extra stage adds hours for recruiters and managers.
In the UK, the CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning Report 2026, as summarised by Omni RMS, put the median cost at 3,500 pounds for senior managers and 2,000 pounds for other employees. The summary says costs rose for the first time since the 2015 report, and that only 19% of organisations measure the return on their hiring.
How can you lower the cost to hire?
Cut waste, not quality.
- Measure your own cost per hire by role type first.
- Use referrals and past applicants before you pay for new advertising.
- Shorten the process. Fewer, better interviews cost less.
- Fix job descriptions so fewer unsuitable people apply.
- For agency hires, compare a percentage fee with a flat fee on the real salary.
- Start from checked candidates where you can, to save screening time.
How Scowter helps
Scowter gives employers pre-vetted talent from a pool of candidates who are actively looking, for one flat success fee with no percentage commission. Profiles arrive in days. A fixed fee makes the external part of your cost per hire known before you start. We do not publish the fee on this page, so ask us and compare.