Vacancy cost calculator:
What a vacancy in your company really costs
A vacancy cost calculator determines what a vacant position costs a company economically – as a cost of vacancy from four blocks: lost added value, team overload, recruiting costs and lost onboarding time.
The Kooku calculator provides three values after four inputs: total vacancy costs, costs per vacancy month and a service recommendation by salary threshold. Data basis: Federal Employment Agency, StepStone, DIHK, Eurostat – as well as 7,800+ Kooku placements since 2014.
What vacancy costs are and why most calculations are wrong
Vacancy costs are the sum of lost added value, additional workload in the team, additional recruiting costs and lost onboarding time. The term sounds like accounting, but it is actually a business measure: it describes what a company loses when a planned position does not work.
Three terms are constantly mixed up in practice, and that’s where the miscalculation begins.
BA management ratio
Vacancy period
Spread between desired date of filling and deregistration of the position. Not a recruiting KPI.
Recruiting KPI
Time-to-Fill
From job release to contract signature. The central control variable in the recruiting process.
Candidate KPI
Time-to-Hire
From the first candidate contact to signing the contract. Measures the candidate experience.
In economic terms, four cost blocks arise in parallel:
Lost value added
Significantly higher than salary in functions with sales or margin contribution
Team overload
Overtime, higher susceptibility to errors, risk of subsequent dismissals
Additional recruiting effort
Hiring manager time, external fees and job advertisements
Lost onboarding time
Every vacancy day shifts the new person’s contribution to value creation
The formula behind the calculator: Sullivan, honestly explained
The standard formula in the market goes back to Dr. John Sullivan and is essentially: Cost of Vacancy = (annual salary ÷ working days) × vacancy duration × importance factor. Depending on the methodology used, the factor is between 1 and 3 and is intended to reflect the fact that the added value of a position is generally higher than the salary alone.
The formula is solid as a starting point, but has three weaknesses that are particularly significant in the DACH SME sector.
Firstly, it treats all functions equally. A sales manager with a clearly measurable sales contribution and an accountant with an operational support function have the same multiplier methodically. Economically, this is wrong.
Secondly, it does not take non-wage labor costs into account, although according to Eurostat data, the employer contribution in Germany is around 23.5% of gross wages (as of December 2025). Calculating without this factor structurally underestimates vacancy costs by almost a quarter.
Thirdly, it leaves out variable remuneration. For sales roles, this distorts the calculation considerably because the fixed salary often only accounts for 60 to 70 percent of the total salary.
How the Kooku vacancy cost calculator works
The calculator is deliberately kept simple and provides a reliable order of magnitude after four entries – without registration, without entering an e-mail. Inputs
The Kooku variant: three methodical corrections
Correction 1 - non-wage labor cost factor 1.28×:
Instead of calculating using the gross salary alone, the calculator multiplies by a factor of 1.28. This value covers the employer’s contribution to statutory social insurance (health, pension, unemployment and long-term care insurance) plus typical levies. The Eurostat range is 23 to 25 percent; Kooku deliberately calculates at the upper end so as not to embellish.
Correction 2 - Function-specific value creation logic:
For functions with a direct contribution to sales (Sales, Customer Success), the salary is not used as a value creation proxy, but rather a conservative ratio. If a sales manager typically contributes 3 to 5 times their salary to sales in the market, the economic vacancy gap is not the lost salary, but the lost sales contribution minus the saved remuneration.
Correction 3 - Conservative, market standard, aggressive side by side:
Instead of a single figure, the calculator shows a corridor with three assumptions. Conservatively, it calculates the pure salary loss plus non-wage labor costs. The typical Sullivan value creation logic is added in line with market practice. Aggressive also includes team overload and additional recruiting costs. Anyone who has to defend the figure to the management thus has three lines of argument instead of one.
What the computer deliberately does not do
He does not invent a second digit after the decimal point. Vacancy costs are an estimate – calculating them to the nearest euro suggests a precision that does not exist methodically. The calculator provides a reliable corridor that is sufficient for business decisions, not a precision landing suitable for auditors.
What a job vacancy in Germany will really cost in 2026
The market data paints a clear picture. StepStone puts the average vacancy costs in Germany for 2024 at around EUR 49,500 per unfilled position, which corresponds to a daily loss of around EUR 624 (Source: StepStone, 2024). The calculation is based on an average vacancy period of 138 days, determined on the basis of data from the Federal Employment Agency.
However, these average values mask the actual relevant differences. Vacancy times vary massively depending on qualification level and sector. The Federal Employment Agency reports an average vacancy period of 95 days for academic experts in 2025 and 140 days for skilled workers with vocational training (as of February 2026). According to Statista, the average vacancy period in the construction industry will be around 275 days in 2025 based on BA data – almost nine months for an average position.
Vacancy period by industry and qualification
| Sector / qualification level | Average vacancy period | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Public administration, education, health | 113 days | Statista / BA, 2025 |
| Academic experts (all sectors) | 95 days | BA, February 2026 |
| Specialists with vocational training | 140 days | BA, February 2026 |
| Machine and vehicle technology (Expert: inside) | 95 days | BA, 2024 |
| Construction industry | around 275 days | Statista / BA, 2025 |
| Germany total (average) | 138 days | StepStone on BA basis, 2024 |
Current monthly snapshots even show significantly longer values in 2025: 180 days in January 2025, 161 days in March 2025 (Source: StepStone, 2025). These figures are suitable as a trend indicator, not as an annual average.
The picture is getting worse in the IT sector. Bitkom continues to report a shortage of 109,000 IT specialists in Germany in 2025 (Source: Bitkom, 2025). The Federal Agency’s shortage list currently includes 163 shortage occupations – from nursing to skilled trades to IT.
This leads to a pragmatic rule of thumb: Anyone who uses the German average of 138 days to calculate vacancy times is underestimating the reality in bottleneck professions. In SMEs with over 20 employees, which according to the DIHK suffer from over 40 percent of staffing problems, 160 to 200 days is more realistic in many functions.
Vacancy costs per function: Sales, IT, Finance, HR, Customer Success and more
An hour that a sales manager does not work costs the company differently than an hour that an accountant does not work. This differentiation is missing in almost all vacancy cost calculators on the market – and it is the core of an honest calculation.
The Kooku calculator distinguishes between eight functional areas and uses the appropriate logic for each. For Sales and Customer Success, the calculator works with a value creation proxy logic, for the other functions with a combination of Salary × 1.28 and function-specific multipliers between 1.5 and 2.2.
Comparison of functions (media salaries Germany 2025)
| Function | Median content | Typical vacancy period | Costs per month (conservative) | Costs per month (market standard) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales Manager | 54.400 € | 130-160 days | 6.500 € | 11.000 € |
| Software Engineer | 51.400 € | 140-180 days | 5.700 € | 9.500 € |
| Controller | 54.000 € | 110-140 days | 5.800 € | 8.700 € |
| Talent Acquisition Manager | 51.600 € | 100-130 days | 5.500 € | 8.300 € |
| Customer Success Manager | 45.200 € | 110-140 days | 5.000 € | 9.000 € |
| HR Manager:in | 52.500 € | 110-140 days | 5.600 € | 8.400 € |
| Operations Manager | 55.000 € | 120-150 days | 5.900 € | 8.900 € |
| Marketing Manager | 53.000 € | 100-130 days | 5.700 € | 8.500 € |
Sources: Median salaries from StepStone Salary Report 2025; vacancy times from BA data 2025/2026 by occupational field; conservative = salary × 1.28 ÷ 12; standard market = Sullivan typical logic with function factor.
Sales and customer success: why salary logic falls short
In roles with a clear revenue or retention contribution, salary is a poor proxy for value creation. The RepVue Cloud Sales Index Q3 2025 shows an average quota retention rate of 43.24 percent for cloud and SaaS sales (Source: RepVue, 2025). An average sales manager delivers a gross value added per year in the amount of their quota × 0.43 – and this is exactly the value that is lost in the event of a vacancy.
Salary logic also falls short in Customer Success. Bain & Company shows for 2024 that 75 percent of software companies are under pressure from declining net revenue retention and almost two thirds of customers see their post-sales needs only moderately or poorly fulfilled (source: Bain, 2024). In this environment, an open CSM position is not a salary loss of EUR 4,000 per month, but an ARR risk that can be five to ten times higher, depending on the book segment.
The Kooku calculator takes this into account with a separate input mask for sales and CS functions, in which the quota or book value is queried as a second variable.
Three sample calculations from practice
The following calculations are anonymized examples from Kooku mandates over the last two years. The input data corresponds to typical SME constellations, the results to the standard market assumptions of the calculator.
Example 1 - Senior Sales Manager (B2B SaaS, 200 employees).
Inputs: 75,000 euros annual salary (70 percent fixed, 30 percent variable), vacancy duration 120 days. Calculated conservatively (salary logic): 75,000 × 1.28 ÷ 250 working days × 120 days = 46,080 euros. Calculated in line with market practice (quota logic): Assumption 720k euros annual quota × 43 percent attainment = 309k euros added value minus 75k euros remuneration = 234k euros net contribution per year → 120 days vacancy = approx. 112,000 euros. Corridor: 46,000 to 112,000 euros per 120-day vacancy.
Example 2 - Lead Software Engineer (Industry, 800 MA)
Inputs: 95,000 euros annual salary, vacancy duration 140 days. Conservative: 95,000 × 1.28 ÷ 250 × 140 = 68,096 euros. Standard market (multiplier 1.8 for engineering lead function): 68,096 × 1.8 = 122,573 euros. Corridor: 68,000 to 123,000 euros per 140-day vacancy. Lead engineering functions usually have knock-on effects (delayed releases, extra work in the team) that are not in the model – the upper limit is therefore realistic, not aggressive.
Example 3 - CFO Mid-Market (Industry, 600 employees)
Inputs: 140,000 euros annual salary, vacancy duration 180 days. Conservative: 140,000 × 1.28 ÷ 250 × 180 = 129,024 euros. Standard market (multiplier 2.0 for C-level): 129,024 × 2.0 = 258,048 euros. Corridor: 129,000 to 258,000 euros per 180-day vacancy. In the case of C-level functions, there is also an unquantified effect: delayed strategic decisions that only become visible in the balance sheet 12 to 24 months later. Sullivan’s logic structurally underestimates this effect.
At what number external recruiting becomes economical
The economically decisive question is not “What does the vacancy cost?”, but “What does each additional month of vacancy cost and at what point is external support cheaper than continuing to wait?”.
The answer depends on three factors: the monthly vacancy costs, the expected reduction in time-to-fill through external support and the cost of this support.
Rule of thumb
If the monthly vacancy costs are over EUR 5,000 and the position is expected to be open for more than 90 days, external recruiting support is almost always worthwhile from a financial perspective. If they are over 10,000 euros per month, the question is no longer whether, but which model.
Service threshold logic in the computer
Fee comparison from an ongoing mandate: fixed fee vs. commission
A concrete example illustrates the effect. Six sales and customer success positions were filled for a SaaS company in the DACH market in 2024. The Kooku costs for the entire mandate were around 31,000 euros on an hourly basis. A headhunter comparison offer with a 25 percent commission on the average target salaries would have cost around 109,500 euros – with an identical placement result. The difference of around 78,500 euros is roughly equivalent to two complete vacancy cost corridors.
The difference is not due to lower quality, but to the remuneration model. Hourly-based recruiting models scale with the actual effort, commissions with the salary of the person recruited. In the case of several parallel searches or volume business in the mid-salary band, the fixed fee model is structurally more favorable.
How vacancy times can be shortened in concrete terms
The most important control variable in any recruiting process is not the number of applications, but the time-to-fill. Every day that is saved here reduces vacancy costs linearly.
StepStone shows an average time-to-hire of 24 working days for Germany in 2025, measured from initial contact to contract signing (source: StepStone, 2025). The reality in many SMEs is significantly higher because three levers usually remain unused.
Lever 1 - Response time to applications
StepStone reports that companies need an average of seven working days to respond to applicants. 48 percent of candidates drop out after the interview if the process takes too long. Reducing the response time to less than 48 hours can usually be implemented within a few weeks and noticeably reduces the bounce rate.
Lever 2 - Briefing quality
Most vacancies are prolonged because the requirements profile is not coordinated between the hiring manager and recruiting. A structured briefing session at the beginning of each search reduces the number of irrelevant shortlist iterations and thus the time-to-fill.
Lever 3 - Interview slot logic
Bundling interviews into fixed weekly slots instead of scheduling them reactively shortens the time-to-fill by an average of two to three weeks. The logic is mechanical: four interviews with two weeks’ notice each add up to eight weeks, four interviews in two slot weeks add up to two weeks.
What external support changes
External recruiting support comes into play when internal capacity is insufficient or when specific search depth is required. Embedded recruiters (recruiting on demand) take over the process for a defined period of time – the effects typically become apparent after four to six weeks. Interim recruiting is used when there is an acute bottleneck, executive search for positions that cannot be filled via regular channels.
From over 7,800 placements in the Kooku portfolio since 2014, it can be deduced that the time-to-hire for externally supported processes is on average 28% below the market benchmark. The difference is due less to better tools than to more consistent process discipline and faster response times.
If you want to realistically estimate your internal recruiting capacities, you can use the recruiting capacity calculator use. If you want to check the degree of automation of your recruiting processes, you will find the Recruiting Automation Score a 5-minute self-assessment.
Methodology transparency: How the Kooku calculator calculates
The calculator uses publicly accessible primary sources. Vacancy times are based on the statistics of the Federal Employment Agency (as of February 2026). Market averages are taken from the StepStone Salary Report 2025, the non-wage labor cost factors from Eurostat data via Trading Economics (as of December 2025). IT-specific key figures come from the Bitkom studies 2025, macroeconomic bottleneck data from the DIHK Skilled Workers Report 2025/2026.
What is in the computer and what is deliberately not
Included
-
Gross salary x factor 1.28
-
Vacancy duration in calendar days
-
Functional spittoon Multicplikator 1.5-2.2
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Quota logic for Sales/Cs
Deliberately not included
-
Fire damage to open areas
-
Long-term cultural costs
-
Indirect innovation losses
-
Knowledge-gap effects
Next Step
The calculator provides a reliable order of magnitude in 60 seconds. If you want to translate the figure into a concrete recruiting plan, you can book a 30-minute sparring session – with no obligation.
12. Der Kooku Vakanzkostenrechner
FAQ: The twelve most frequently asked questions about vacancy costs
What are vacancy costs?
Vacancy costs are the sum of lost added value, additional workload in the team, additional recruiting effort and lost onboarding time that arise as long as a position remains unfilled.
How do you calculate vacancy costs?
The most common method is the extended Sullivan formula: Annual salary times non-wage labor cost factor 1.28 divided by working days times vacancy duration times value-added multiplier (1.5 to 2.2 depending on function).
Which formula makes sense for vacancy costs?
For most functions, the extended Sullivan formula with non-wage labor cost factor and function-specific multiplier is sufficient. A value-added proxy logic should also be used for sales-related functions.
Which Sullivan factors are realistic?
A factor of 1.5 is calculated conservatively, 1.8 to 2.0 is standard for the market, and 2.5 to 3.0 is calculated aggressively. Factors above 3.0 can only be used in C-level functions with a documentable contribution to value creation.
How much does a vacancy cost per day?
According to StepStone 2024, the average daily loss in Germany is around 624 euros. In medium-sized companies with a salary band of 50,000 to 80,000 euros, the realistic range is between 300 and 700 euros per day, in C-level functions between 1,500 and 3,000 euros per day.
What does a vacancy cost per month?
For a position with an annual salary of 60,000 euros, the monthly vacancy costs are conservatively around 5,100 euros, or 7,700 euros for the market. With an annual salary of 100,000 euros, this corresponds to 8,500 euros conservative and 12,800 euros standard for the market.
What are the average vacancy costs in Germany?
StepStone puts the average vacancy costs for 2024 at around EUR 49,500 per unfilled position, based on an average vacancy period of 138 days.
Which cost blocks belong in a cost-of-vacancy calculator?
Lost added value, team overload, additional recruiting effort and lost onboarding time. Brand effects and long-term cultural costs cannot be clearly quantified and do not belong in a serious calculator.
How do vacancy costs differ in Sales, IT and Finance?
In sales, the vacancy costs are usually significantly higher than the salary suggests because a quota is not met. In IT, vacancies tend to be longer due to the 109,000 missing specialists, which increases overall costs. In Finance, the logic is closer to the pure salary calculation.
What is the difference between vacancy time, time-to-fill and time-to-hire?
Vacancy time is the BA administrative key figure. Time-to-fill measures from job release to contract signature. Time-to-hire from the first candidate contact until the contract is signed.
When does external recruiting support become economically viable?
If the monthly vacancy costs exceed EUR 5,000 and the position is open for more than 90 days, external support is almost always worthwhile. From 10,000 euros per month, the only question is which model.
How can the vacancy period be shortened?
Three levers with the greatest effect: Response time to applications under 48 hours, structured briefing hour at the beginning of each search, bundling interviews into fixed weekly slots. Externally supported processes are on average 28 percent below the market benchmark.
Would you like more information on recruiting? Then feel free to read more about it in our recruiting blog.
How can I avoid high vacancy costs?
- Book an appointment with our recruiting consultant now
Sources
- Federal Employment Agency, vacancy statistics (as of February 2026)
- StepStone Salary Report 2025 and Vacancy Costs Study 2024
- IAB job survey Q1 2025
- DIHK Skilled Workers Report 2025/2026
- Bitkom IT skills gap 2025
- RepVue Cloud Sales Index Q3 2025
- Bain & Company, Customer Success Tech Report 2024
- Statista, Vacancy time by economic sector 2025
- Eurostat via Trading Economics, Employer non-wage costs (as at December 2025)
Status of the data: May 2026. annual update cycle.
