Survey: Manual Data Entry Costs American Companies More Than $28,000 Per Employee Each Year

Survey finds workers spend more than nine hours a week on repetitive data entry tasks

DUBAI, July 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey commissioned by Parseur reveals that manual data entry costs U.S. businesses an average of $28,500 per employee per year, underscoring the high cost of repetitive, non-strategic work still common across departments.

Survey respondents reported dedicating an average of more than nine hours per week to manually transferring data from emails, PDFs, spreadsheets and scanned documents into digital systems.

Employees who spend the most time on data entry (20+ hours weekly) are more likely to work in IT and finance and fall into higher pay brackets ($50–$90 per hour), which significantly increases the total dollar impact on employers.

"These are hours that companies are burning on tasks that can and should be automated," said Sylvestre Dupont, co-founder of Parseur, an intelligent document processing platform. "It's not just a financial issue, it's also about opportunity cost. The survey reveals that American workers would rather spend their time improving operations, serving customers or working on growth initiatives. And with regulations like GDPR, extracting and using data also requires precision and auditability to avoid unnecessary legal or reputational risk."

The survey, which gathered responses from professionals across finance, operations, IT, customer support and HR, also revealed that nearly 60% have felt burned out or frustrated by repetitive data tasks, highlighting the toll of manual entry on employee morale.

Despite the significant monetary losses and mental strain, about half of workers report limited exposure to automation tools: 46% have never used any tool to automate data extraction or entry. Among those who hadn't adopted automation, 25% shared they didn't know what tools were available and 27% said it wasn't part of their job to make those decisions.

Trust in AI-powered tools is strong as 67% said they trust AI to handle document tasks securely and accurately. Those who remain unconvinced expressed concerns about data privacy and control.

Methodology
In July 2025, Parseur partnered with QuestionPro to survey 500 U.S.-based professionals working across operations, finance, administration, IT, customer support and others. Respondents ranged from ages 18 to 65 and older, with the majority falling between ages 26 and 45. Participants included a mix of full-time employees and contractors, with responses evenly distributed across genders.

About Parseur
Parseur is a document processing platform that helps businesses automatically extract data from emails, PDFs and other documents, with no coding required. Companies use Parseur to eliminate repetitive tasks, reduce human error and accelerate workflows across operations, logistics, finance and customer service. The platform is trusted by thousands of teams worldwide to streamline document-heavy processes and scale their productivity. Learn more at parseur.com.

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SOURCE Parseur