€15,000 to €35,000 a month for an under-staffed hotel. €5,000 to €25,000 a month for an open welder position. Here’s how those numbers add up.
It’s easy to think of an unfilled position as a line on an org chart — a gap to fill “when the right person comes along.” The costs say otherwise. For hospitality businesses running short on service and housekeeping staff, the losses run €15,000 to €35,000 per month — overtime, lost bookings from reduced capacity, guest experience issues that show up in reviews and repeat-booking rates.
For skilled trades, the shape of the loss is different but the size is comparable. An open welder position — one of the roles on Austria’s current shortage occupation list — costs a business €5,000 to €25,000 a month, driven by project delays, subcontracting at a premium, and contractual penalties for missed deadlines.
What both numbers have in common: they’re monthly, and they compound. A vacancy that stays open for six months isn’t six times cheaper than one problem month — the downstream effects (lost contracts, burned-out remaining staff, guests who don’t come back) tend to stack.
The reason we lead with these figures isn’t to scare anyone into a decision. It’s that they set the real comparison point. A recruitment process that takes four to seven months sounds long in isolation. It sounds different next to a monthly loss figure that’s still running while you wait.
The honest question worth asking isn’t “how fast can we fill this,” but “what does each month of vacancy actually cost us, and does that change how much lead time we should be building in.” For most of the employers we talk to, it changes the timeline they plan around — often by a full hiring season.