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Cost Per Hire Calculator
Know Your True Hiring Cost

Enter your recruiting costs below and get an instant breakdown of what each hire actually costs your organization — recruiter time, job board spend, interview hours, and onboarding — compared against SHRM industry benchmarks.

Instant, real-time results
SHRM benchmark comparison
Built for US recruiting teams

Hiring Volume

How many people you hire per year

Total positions filled per year

hires
1 hire500 hires

External Costs

Direct spend per hire on job boards and ads

LinkedIn, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, agency fees, etc.

$

Recruiter Time

Internal hours spent sourcing, screening, and coordinating

Sourcing, screening, scheduling, coordination

hrs
5 hrs80 hrs

Fully-loaded cost including benefits and overhead

$
Recruiter cost per hire$900

Hiring Manager Time

Manager hours in interviews and decision-making

Resume reviews, interviews, debrief, offer approval

hrs
2 hrs40 hrs

Fully-loaded cost — typically higher than recruiter rate

$
Hiring manager cost per hire$680

Onboarding Cost

Training, equipment, software, and ramp-up time

Training materials, equipment provisioning, lost productivity during ramp

$

Your Results

Cost Per Hire

$4,280

per hire, all-in

Annual hiring spend

$214,000

vs. SHRM benchmark ($4,700 avg)

-$420 below avg

Tech/Software avg: $28,000 · Healthcare: $5,800 · Finance: $7,500

Cost Breakdown

Internal (recruiter + HM)
36.9%$1,580
External (job boards & ads)
35.0%$1,500
Onboarding
28.0%$1,200

Potential savings with AI hiring

$74,900 / year

Based on 35% average reduction reported by teams using AI-assisted hiring (InCruiter internal data)

See How InCruiter Reduces CPH

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Cost Summary

Recruiter labor$900
Hiring manager labor$680
Job boards & ads$1,500
Onboarding$1,200
Total CPH$4,280
Understanding Your Results

What Your Cost Per Hire Tells You

CPH is one of the most important — and most misunderstood — metrics in recruiting. Here's what the number actually reveals about your hiring operation.

It captures the full cost of a hire

Most teams only count job board spend. But the SHRM Cost Per Hire formula includes internal labor — recruiter time, hiring manager hours, interview panels — which typically accounts for 40–60% of the true cost. If you're not tracking internal hours, you're underestimating CPH by half.

High CPH signals process inefficiency

A CPH significantly above your industry average usually points to one of three things: long time-to-fill (more recruiter hours per hire), heavy reliance on expensive external sourcing, or high offer rejection rates causing roles to restart. Each has a different fix.

Automation targets the biggest cost driver

Internal labor — recruiter and hiring manager time — is the largest and most controllable cost. AI-assisted screening, automated scheduling, and structured interviews reduce the hours per hire without cutting quality. Teams using AI hiring tools report 30–40% reductions in internal CPH.

Industry Benchmarks

SHRM Cost Per Hire by Industry

SHRM's 2022 Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report. Your number may differ based on role seniority, location, and sourcing mix.

IndustryAvg Cost Per Hirevs. Your CPH
All Industries (SHRM avg)
$4,700-$420
Tech / Software Engineering
$28,000-$23.7K
Healthcare
$5,800-$1.5K
Finance & Banking
$7,500-$3.2K

Source: SHRM Talent Acquisition Benchmarking Report 2022. Tech figures from LinkedIn Talent Solutions 2023.

FAQ

Common Questions About Cost Per Hire

What is the SHRM formula for Cost Per Hire?
SHRM defines Cost Per Hire as: (Total Internal Recruiting Costs + Total External Recruiting Costs) ÷ Total Number of Hires. Internal costs include recruiter salaries, HR staff time, hiring manager time in the interview process, and any recruiting technology subscriptions. External costs include job board fees, agency/staffing fees, background check costs, and sourcing tool spend. This calculator follows the SHRM methodology with the addition of onboarding costs, which many teams include in their fully-loaded CPH figure.
Why is my Cost Per Hire higher than the SHRM $4,700 average?
The $4,700 all-industry average skews low because it includes high-volume, lower-skill roles that are faster and cheaper to fill. If you're hiring for technical, specialized, or senior roles, a CPH of $10,000–$30,000 is common. The more useful comparison is against your own industry benchmark — tech hiring averages $28,000 per hire, healthcare $5,800, and finance $7,500. Also check whether you're capturing all internal hours: hiring manager time is the most commonly underreported cost.
How can AI hiring tools reduce my Cost Per Hire?
AI-assisted hiring reduces CPH primarily by cutting the internal labor component — which is typically 40–60% of total cost. Automated screening eliminates 60–80% of recruiter first-screen hours. AI scheduling removes the back-and-forth that adds 3–5 hours per hire. Structured AI interviews reduce hiring manager panel time by standardizing question delivery and evaluation. Teams using InCruiter's full platform report 30–40% reductions in CPH within the first quarter, primarily from reclaimed recruiter and hiring manager hours.
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35% average CPH reduction with InCruiter

Ready to reduce your $4,280 cost per hire?

See how InCruiter's AI hiring platform can cut your internal labor costs, reduce time-to-fill, and save $74,900 per year on hiring.

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