The most quoted UK figure is £30,614 to replace one leaver: £5,433 to hire, and £25,181 of output lost over 28 weeks while a new starter learns the job (Oxford Economics for Unum, 2014, as reported at the time). The cash paid to hire is far smaller: a median of £2,000 for most employees and £3,500 for senior managers and directors (CIPD Resourcing and talent planning report 2026).
In short
- £30,614 is a 2014 figure for staff earning £25,000 or more in five sectors. Under a fifth of it is cash paid to hire.
- The median cost per hire in 2026 is £2,000 for most employees (223 estimates) and £3,500 for senior managers and directors (263 estimates).
- The two figures answer different questions: what an employer pays out to hire, and what the learning period costs in output.
- Of the HR professionals who knew their turnover data, 24% said their organisation works out what it costs.
- For a typical UK employer of 1,000 people, 25 a year leave for a better package. Replacing them comes to £767,000 on the 2014 figure, of which about £50,000 is cash to hire at the 2026 median.
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What is the £30,614 made of?
Two parts, and most of it is not cash.
| Part | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Hiring the replacement | £5,433 | 17.7% |
| Output lost over 28 weeks while the new starter learns the job | £25,181 | 82.3% |
| To replace one leaver | £30,614 | 100% |
The figure comes from The Cost of Brain Drain, a 2014 study by Oxford Economics for Unum [1]. The amounts above are as reported at the time [2].
Who does the £30,614 cover, and how old is it?
It covers staff earning £25,000 or more in five sectors, in 2014 [2].
Three limits follow.
- It is old. The figure is in 2014 pounds, and no update has been published.
- It is not every job. Lower-paid roles and other sectors were outside the study.
- Most of it is an estimate of lost output. It is not money that leaves a bank account.
It is still the figure most often quoted in the UK, because nothing newer measures the same thing.
What does hiring cost in cash today?
A median of £2,000 for most employees and £3,500 for senior managers and directors, in the CIPD's 2026 survey [3].
| Role | Median cost per hire | Estimates |
|---|---|---|
| Senior managers and directors, all sectors | £3,500 | 263 |
| Senior managers and directors, private sector | £5,000 | 170 |
| Other employees, all sectors | £2,000 | 223 |
| Other employees, private sector | £2,000 | 151 |
These are the respondents who could give an average cost per hire accurate to within 20%. The CIPD advises caution: the samples are small, and organisations count different costs. The survey was run online by YouGov from 2 April to 2 May 2026, with 1,014 UK HR and people professionals [3].
Why are the two figures so far apart?
They answer different questions.
- Cost per hire is what the employer pays out to recruit, such as advertising and agency fees. Organisations count different costs in it, as the CIPD notes [3].
- Cost to replace adds the output the organisation goes without while a new person learns the job.
On the 2014 study's own split, hiring is £5,433 of £30,614: under a fifth. So a finance director who counts only invoices sees one figure, and an operations director who counts output sees another. Both are right about what they count.
How many employers work out what turnover costs?
About one in four. Of the organisations that knew their turnover data, 24% said they calculate its cost; 8% did not know [3].
Large private sector organisations are the most likely to (41%), ahead of private sector small and medium-sized employers (15%), the public sector (12%) and non-profits (8%) [3].
What does it come to for an employer of your size?
For a typical UK employer of 1,000 people, about £767,000 a year to replace those who leave for a better package.
The sum uses two national figures. In the year to June 2026, 8.6% of people in work changed employer [4]. Of employees who have changed employer, 29% say they did so for better pay and benefits [5]. Together that is 25 people a year in every 1,000.
| Employees | Leave for a better package | To replace them at £30,614 | Of which cash to hire, at £2,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 3 | £77,000 | £5,000 |
| 250 | 6 | £192,000 | £13,000 |
| 1,000 | 25 | £767,000 | £50,000 |
| 5,000 | 125 | £3.84m | £251,000 |
| 10,000 | 251 | £7.67m | £501,000 |
Each sum is worked before the number of people is rounded. The calculator does it for any headcount from 50 to 10,000, and gives the result as a PDF or a spreadsheet.
What do these figures leave out?
- Your own leavers. These are national rates. Your turnover, and why people leave, will differ. See how to calculate the cost of staff turnover for your own.
- Base pay. "Pay and benefits" is one answer in the CIPD's survey. It includes base pay, which lumi does not benchmark.
- Which benefit. Nothing in these sources links one benefit to one leaver.
- Posts that are not refilled. A leaver who is not replaced costs nothing to hire.
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FAQ
How much does it cost to replace an employee in the UK? £30,614 is the figure most often quoted: £5,433 to hire and £25,181 of output lost over 28 weeks (Oxford Economics for Unum, 2014, as reported at the time) [1][2]. It covers staff earning £25,000 or more in five sectors.
How much does it cost to hire an employee in the UK? A median of £2,000 for most employees and £3,500 for senior managers and directors, according to the CIPD Resourcing and talent planning report 2026 [3]. The figures rest on 223 and 263 estimates.
Is the £30,614 figure still valid? It is from 2014 and has not been updated [1]. Under a fifth of it is cash paid to hire; the rest is an estimate of output lost while a new starter learns the job.
How long does a new employee take to reach full output? 28 weeks, in the Oxford Economics study behind the £30,614 figure, as reported at the time [2].
How many people leave for better pay and benefits? About 25 a year in every 1,000 employees: 8.6% of people in work changed employer in the year to June 2026 (ONS) [4], and 29% of employees who have changed employer say it was for better pay and benefits (CIPD Good Work Index 2026) [5].
Sources
- Oxford Economics for Unum, The Cost of Brain Drain (2014). https://www.oxfordeconomics.com/resource/the-cost-of-brain-drain/
- HR Review (25 February 2014), reporting the study's figures: £5,433 to hire, £25,181 of lost output over 28 weeks, staff earning £25,000 or more in five sectors. The study's own page gives no figures, so they are cited as reported. https://hrreview.co.uk/hr-news/recruitment/it-costs-over-30k-to-replace-a-staff-member
- CIPD, Resourcing and talent planning report 2026 (YouGov online survey, 2 April to 2 May 2026; 1,014 UK HR and people professionals). Table 1, median cost per hire; "Most organisations don't calculate the cost of labour turnover". https://www.cipd.org/globalassets/media/knowledge/knowledge-hub/reports/2026-pdfs/9218-resource-and-talent-planning-2026-report-web.pdf
- Office for National Statistics, Labour Force Survey flows estimates (X02), August 2026 edition: job-to-job rate, seasonally adjusted, the four quarters to April to June 2026. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveyflowsestimatesx02
- CIPD, Good Work Index 2026 (CIPD/YouGov UK Working Lives survey; 5,074 UK employees, December 2025 to February 2026). https://prod.cipd.org/globalassets/media/comms/news/2026/good-work-index-2026.pdf
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David Whitfield, What does it cost to replace an employee in the UK? lumi, evidence as at 12 November 2026. https://lumihr.co.uk/guides/cost-of-replacing-an-employee-ukLast reviewed 12 November 2026 · This guide states published evidence at the date shown, with its sources listed. It is general information, not advice.