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Higher skills provide growing job opportunities as general labour demand slows down

21/05/2012

Higher skills remain important for employment opportunities, the latest European Vacancy Monitor shows. The number of job finders in the ‘professionals’ group continued to grow the most in the third quarter 2011 in comparison to the same quarter in 2010 (+16%) while the number of job seekers who found jobs as legislators, senior officials and managers has grown by 13%.

There are further signs of a weakening trend in labour demand since the second quarter 2011. According to Eurostat data an increasing number of countries experienced shrinking number of vacancies. This has had implications for the notification of vacancies to public employment services resulting in a mixed picture: while 10 EU countries mark a positive growth up to 116% in Estonia, 9 public employment services show a negative development down to -37 % in the Netherlands. Recent figures on job vacancies for temporary agency workers also show a continued decline.

A special section dedicated to the development of labour demand in Denmark, known for its flexicurity model, shows a specific reaction to the crisis:

• decline in job vacancies affecting strongly the notification of vacancies to public employment services (PESs) compared to the average of 10 European PESs
• high job mobility with a ratio of 10 employees to one job finder compared to a ratio of 15 to one in the 27 EU countries on average
• rather low share of temporary work with 8,5 % of all employees compared to 13,9 % in the 27 EU countries.

European Job Mobility Bulletin

According to the April issue of the European Job Mobility Bulletin, based on the vacancies published on the EURES portal, the top jobs in demand were:

1. Shop salespersons
2. Finance and sales associate professionals
3. Housekeeping and restaurant services workers
4. Electrical and electronical equipment mechanics and fitters
5. Modern health associated professionals.

Additionally, the bulletin shows there are good employment opportunities for:

• Personal care and related workers
• Machinery mechanics and fitters
• Architects, engineers and related professionals
• Administrative associate professionals
• Computing professionals