Vacancy Rate
What is vacancy rate?
Vacancy rate is the percentage of an organization's positions that are unfilled at a point in time, calculated by dividing open positions by the total of open and filled positions. It shows how much of the planned workforce is missing, which is why workforce planners and recruiting leaders watch it alongside time to fill.
Key facts
- Also called: Job vacancy rate, position vacancy rate, open position rate
- Measured as: (Open positions ÷ (open positions + filled positions)) × 100
- Measured when: A point in time, usually the last day of a month or quarter
- Owned by: HR or workforce planning, with recruiting for the open-role detail
- Public reference: The BLS job openings rate, a monthly economy-wide figure, not an internal vacancy rate
How to calculate vacancy rate
The formula needs two counts taken on the same day: the number of approved positions that are open, and the number of positions that are filled.
Vacancy rate = (open positions ÷ (open positions + filled positions)) × 100
The denominator is the total number of positions the organization has decided it needs, filled or not, so it is not the current headcount.
Worked example
The numbers below are an illustration, not a benchmark.
On the last day of the quarter a company has 188 filled positions and 12 approved positions that are open.
Total positions = 188 + 12 = 200
Vacancy rate = (12 ÷ 200) × 100 = 6 percent
Three conventions decide whether your figure can be compared with anyone else's. Count only approved, budgeted positions as open. Decide whether a position with an accepted offer and a future start date still counts as open; many teams keep it open until the start date. Decide whether part-time positions count by position or by full-time equivalent, and keep the same rule every period.
What a good vacancy rate is
There is no single good number. The rate varies by industry, by role, and by how fast the organization is growing. A hospital that must staff every shift reads a vacancy rate differently from a software company that can leave a role open while it searches. Compare your rate with your own history and with the roles that matter most.
For a national reference point, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a monthly job openings rate in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. For August 2026, the number and rate of job openings were 7.1 million and 4.3 percent (BLS, JOLTS news release for August 2026, published September 29, 2026). The BLS computes that rate by dividing job openings by the sum of employment and job openings, which is the same structure as the formula above. It is still not an internal vacancy rate: it covers every employer in the economy. It counts positions open on the last business day of the month and uses the BLS definition of an opening rather than your list of approved requisitions. Treat it as labor-market context, not as a target.
Vacancy rate, turnover, and time to fill
Vacancies open when someone leaves or when workforce planning adds a position, and close when a hire starts. The vacancy rate therefore rises when turnover or growth outpaces hiring, and falls when the recruiting team closes roles faster than new ones open.
Time to fill is the other half of the picture. A low vacancy rate with long time to fill means few roles are open but each stays open a long time. A high vacancy rate with short time to fill usually means growth or turnover, not a slow hiring process. Reading the two together tells you whether to fix hiring speed or the flow of new requisitions.
How to reduce the vacancy rate
Reducing the vacancy rate means closing open positions faster than new ones open, and both sides can be worked. On the filling side, start sourcing as soon as a requisition is approved, keep a warm pool for roles that recur, and clear the interview and approval steps where roles stall. On the opening side, review the list of approved positions and close any that the plan no longer needs, because a position nobody intends to fill inflates the rate without describing a real gap. Review the rate on the same day each month, by department, and read it together with time to fill.
Why vacancy rate matters for recruiting
Every vacancy is a requisition on someone's desk, so the vacancy rate is a direct measure of the recruiting backlog. A rising rate is an early signal to add sourcing capacity or revisit the hiring forecast before managers start escalating. A rate that is high in one department and low everywhere else points to a department-level cause, such as a pay range that trails the market or a hiring manager who is slow to interview.
How uRecruits approaches it
The HR Insights Job Report tracks jobs across the company by status and by date, including statistics on open and closed roles, and shows which roles are moving and which are stuck. HR leaders use it for workforce planning and time-to-fill trends. uRecruits is a hiring platform. It does not hold filled headcount; that lives in your HRIS.
