Hiring in the skilled trades is rarely straightforward. When a role stays open, the cost doesn’t show up in just one place. It spreads into delays, overtime, quality problems, stressed crews, unhappy customers, and sometimes even safety issues.
A lot of businesses feel those impacts every day, but they don’t have a clean way to put a number on them. And when you can’t measure the damage, it’s easy to tell yourself you’ll get through another week, or to rush into a hire that turns into a bigger problem. This post walks through a simple way to estimate what an open role is really costing you, then use that number to make a smarter hiring decision.
What an Open Role Really Costs (Beyond the Wage)
Most people start with the hourly wage and assume that’s the cost. In reality, the wage is just one piece. When you’re short a skilled worker, the ripple effects usually cost more than the paycheck.
Here are the most common places the cost shows up.
Lost production and missed deadlines
When a project falls behind, you may miss milestones, push out invoicing, or lose the chance to take on additional work. For service businesses, fewer techs often means fewer jobs completed per day and longer scheduling windows, which can drive customers elsewhere.
Overtime and burnout
When there’s a gap, you lean harder on the people you trust. That means overtime pay, but it also means fatigue. Fatigue leads to mistakes and safety risks, and it’s one of the fastest ways to burn out your top performers.
Manager and foreman time
When you’re short-staffed, your leads and managers spend more time switching crews around, checking work, dealing with issues, and talking customers off the ledge. That time is expensive, and it pulls them away from the work that keeps jobs moving.
More rework and quality issues
When the team is stretched, corners get cut without anyone meaning to. Less experienced workers may end up doing tasks they’re not ready for. Rework, warranty calls, and repeat trips can wipe out profit quickly.
Customer frustration and reputation damage
Late deliveries, rescheduled appointments, and inconsistent quality can mean refunds, bad reviews, and fewer referrals. Even if you can’t trace every lost job back to staffing, it adds up over time.
Safety and compliance exposure
If the wrong person is doing the work, or someone isn’t properly qualified, you can create real risk. In some environments, one incident can cost more than months of wages.
The point of calculating vacancy cost isn’t to panic. It’s to stop guessing and start making decisions with clear numbers.
A Quick Way to Calculate Vacancy Cost
You don’t need perfect data to get value from this. A reasonable estimate is enough to guide your next steps.
Before you decide how to fill the gap, it helps to look at your options side by side. Many businesses start with referrals and internal recruiting, then vet a few skilled trade staffing agencies when speed matters. The key is to evaluate them like any other vendor, based on credential checks, safety practices, responsiveness, and replacement terms.
Step 1: Estimate weekly output you’re losing
Start with this question: What does one filled role make possible in a normal week?
If you’re a service shop, that might look like one tech completing 20 calls per week at $250 per call. That’s $5,000 per week in revenue. If revenue isn’t the best measure for you, use gross margin or the value of work completed.
Step 2: Add overtime and coverage costs
Next, look at what you’re paying to cover the gap.
If you’re using overtime, focus on the premium you’re paying above normal labor. Example: 25 overtime hours in a week at a $12 per hour premium is $300 in extra cost.
If you’re using subcontractors, your “premium” is the difference between what that labor costs you versus doing it in-house.
Step 3: Add the management time
Estimate how much extra time your foreman or manager spends each week because the role is open, then multiply by their loaded hourly rate.
Example: 5 hours per week times $55 per hour loaded is $275 per week.
Step 4: Add a simple rework allowance
Keep it simple. When teams are stretched, a small percentage of work usually gets redone or takes longer than it should.
Example: 3% of a $5,000 week is $150.
Step 5: Put it together
Weekly vacancy cost = output loss + coverage premium + manager time + rework allowance
Using the example numbers, that’s $5,000 + $300 + $275 + $150 = $5,725 per week.
Now multiply by time. If the role stays open six weeks, that’s $34,350.
Once you see that total, it’s easier to make the right call. Paying a little more for the right person often costs less than waiting.
What to Do With the Number
Once you have the weekly cost, the next decision comes down to urgency and risk.
Urgency is how much each week of vacancy costs you. Risk is how damaging a bad hire would be, especially in safety-sensitive roles or positions where mistakes are expensive.
If urgency and risk are both high, move quickly but don’t cut corners on verification. Use structured screening, confirm credentials, and make onboarding consistent so the person can contribute right away.
If urgency is high but risk is lower, speed matters more, but you still want basic screening for reliability. A 72-hour check-in helps catch problems early.
If urgency is lower but risk is high, you can take more time. Use work samples, structured interviews, and reference checks, and focus on building a bench so you aren’t scrambling next time.
If both urgency and risk are low, put energy into your pipeline. Referrals, training programs, and retention improvements will save you pain down the road.
How to Lower Vacancy Cost Without Making a Bad Hire
The goal isn’t just to hire faster. It’s to hire in a way you can repeat without chaos.
Start with the job scope. Write down the tasks, the environment, the equipment, and what “qualified” actually means. A clear scope prevents mismatches.
Create a day-one-ready checklist, including required certifications, PPE, site requirements, tools if needed, and basic paperwork. A lot of “no-shows” are really onboarding failures.
Standardize a short pre-screen that checks reliability. Ask about commute, schedule limits, recent job changes, and realistic start date.
Run a 72-hour check-in once someone starts. Most early quits happen fast, and small fixes early prevent bigger issues.
Build a bench before peak season hits. Keep a list of proven workers, stay in touch with training programs, and keep your onboarding materials ready so you can ramp quickly when you need to.
Closing: Protect Your Margin
Open roles cost money in more ways than most businesses realize. Once you’ve put a real number on it, you can decide how urgent the hire is and how much verification you need.
If the role is costing you thousands per week, it can be worth investing in better sourcing and a tighter process. If the cost is lower, you may have room to build a pipeline and focus on retention.
Either way, you end up with fewer last-minute scrambles, steadier operations, and a team that can support growth.
