The IDC numbers on this topic come from Susan Feldman’s recurring research on “The Hidden Costs of Information Work” – Doc #217936 updated in May 2009.Her numbers for searching but not finding were 3.7 hours/week or $5974 per worker per year. It assumes a salary of $75,000 (including benefits) based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual salary and benefits figures for mid-2008 (www.bls.gov/data/#wages).Her research showed that on average people worked 46.45 hrs/week, with many working over 50 hours/week. Search ranged between 1 hour and 18 hours/day.Assuming an organization with 1000 knowledge workers — they’re losing nearly $6 million annually — searching and not finding. That is not a small number. Apply it to larger organizations and we’re talking tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity.Furthermore, her research points out that since 2001 the amount of time people spend searching is rising, which is not surprising given that there are many more places to look — not just search engines, but social networks, blogs, daily feeds, etc.It would be nice to be optimistic about this problem… but the numbers indicate that it is far worse than what you’d like to admit. With people searching more, it will likely increase unless the tools become increasingly accurate or we become more proficient at using them.