Data extracted in March 2025.
Planned article update: June 2025.
Highlights
2.5% of jobs in the euro area and 2.3% of jobs in the EU were vacant in Q4 2024.
At 4.1%, Belgium and the Netherlands had the highest job vacancy rates in the EU in Q4 2024.
Quarterly job vacancy rates, seasonally adjusted, Q1 2014 - Q4 2024
This article gives an overview of recent quarterly and annual job vacancy statistics, notably the job vacancy rate (JVR) in the European Union (EU) , Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.
EU policies in the area of job vacancies aim to improve the functioning of the labour market by trying to help match supply and demand more closely. The European jobs and mobility portal (EURES) was set up in order to enable job seekers to consult all vacancies publicised by the employment services of each EU country.
Job vacancies: latest developments
The job vacancy rate (not seasonally adjusted) in the euro area[1] was 2.5% in Q4 2024, unchanged from Q3 2024 and down from 2.9% in Q4 2023. In the EU, the job vacancy rate was 2.3% in Q4 2024, the same as in Q3 2024 and down from 2.6% in Q4 2023, as shown in Table 1.
Source: Eurostat (jvs_q_nace2)
Among EU countries (see Data sources for information concerning coverage), the highest job vacancy rates in Q4 2024 were recorded in Belgium and in the Netherlands (both 4.1%), followed by Austria (3.6%). By contrast, the lowest rates were recorded in Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania (0.7% in all of them), followed by Spain (0.9%).
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Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, the job vacancy rate increased in 4 EU countries, remained stable in 6 EU countries and decreased in 17 EU countries. The largest increases were observed in Denmark, Spain, Croatia and Malta (+0.1 percentage points (pp)). The largest decreases were recorded in Germany (-0.7 pp), Greece (-0.6 pp), France and Austria (-0.5 pp).
Figure 2 presents information for annual job vacancy rates in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. In the euro area and the EU, job vacancy rates rose in 2022, followed by a slight decline in 2023 and a more significant decrease in 2024.
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Job vacancies: a backwards glance
In the euro area, the COVID-19 pandemic had a more pronounced impact on the job vacancy rate recorded in 2020 than the economic recession in 2009. In 2009, the job vacancy rate of the euro area decreased slightly compared with the year before (by 0.1 pp against 0.3 pp for the EU) and increased back to its initial level in 2010 already. By contrast, in 2020, the job vacancy rate fell by 0.5 pp with a recovery of 0.7 pp in 2021 and 2022. However, the job vacancy rate fell again by 0.2 pp in 2023 and by 0.4 pp in 2024.
In the EU, the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the job vacancy rates recorded in 2020, as was the case with the economic recession in 2009, but with a quicker recovery (see Figure 3). At the height of the crisis in 2009, the EU job vacancy rate fell by 0.3 pp compared with the year before, remained unchanged in 2010 before increasing by 0.3 pp in 2011 which offset the impact of the big recession. By contrast, there was a decrease of 0.5 pp in 2020 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic with a subsequent recovery of 0.6 pp in 2021 and 0.6 pp in 2022 whereas the job vacancy rate started diminishing again in 2023 (-0.2 pp) and then further decreased in 2024 (-0.4 pp).
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(percentage points)
Source: Eurostat (jvs_a_rate_r2)
Figure 4 presents the development of the seasonally adjusted quarterly job vacancy rates in the euro area and in the EU between 2011 and 2024.
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(%)
Source: Eurostat (jvs_q_nace2)
Job vacancies: a breakdown by economic activity
Figure 5 presents the job vacancy rates of the euro area and the EU by economic activity, in Q4 2024. Data are displayed from section B to section N of the NACE Rev. 2 classification, for which data are available from all EU countries. The highest job vacancy rates, for the EU and the euro area, respectively, were recorded in Section N: "Administrative and support service activities" (that includes temporary employment agencies), followed by Section F: "Construction", Section J: "Information and communication", Section M: "Professional, scientific and technical activities", and Section I: "Accommodation and food service activities".
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(%)
(not seasonally adjusted)
Source: Eurostat (jvs_q_nace2)
Online job advertisement rate
Eurostat has recently introduced the 'online job advertisement rate' (OJAR) as an experimental statistic - a novel indicator designed to measure labour demand. This innovative indicator is derived from web-scraping technology, which collects data from online job advertisements (OJA) using Eurostat's Web Intelligence Hub (WIH) infrastructure.
Eurostat's existing job vacancy statistics lack detailed breakdowns by occupation, which are essential for a comprehensive assessment of recruitment bottlenecks. Conducting surveys to fill this information gap would come at large cost and burden. The OJAR addresses this issue by complementing the published job vacancy rate with occupation-specific breakdowns obtained from OJAs. It highlights the most sought-after occupations online, thereby indicating potential recruitment challenges for employers.
The OJAR is calculated as the ratio of the number of online job advertisements (OJAs) from the Web Intelligence Hub (WIH) to the number of employees from the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS).
As shown in Figure 6, in the EU in 2023, sales, marketing, and development managers were ahead of manufacturing labourers (22.4%) and other sales workers (17.6%). Retail and wholesale trade managers (16.8%) and other clerical support workers (16.7%) complete the top 5 occupations.
While occupations in the public sector such as healthcare workers and teachers may also face recruitment difficulties, they did not rank among the most sought-after occupations online. This could be because these positions are often not advertised on the web.
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Source: Eurostat (jvs_oja_eu)
Figure 7 displays the most demanded skills (in native language) in 2023.
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
Eurostat publishes quarterly and annual data on the number of job vacancies and the number of occupied posts. This information is collected on a quarterly basis from the national statistical authorities under the Regulation on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies. The data may be analysed by economic activity at the NACE section level and by size of enterprise, while data are collected on a voluntary basis by occupation or by region. Annual data for the job vacancy rate are unadjusted information calculated directly from the quarterly data. Some of the data provided by the EU countries fail to match common criteria and there may be differences in the coverage between countries. As a result, there are currently no EU totals for the actual numbers of job vacancies or occupied posts, work is currently underway to remove these differences in coverage. Note that the data presented for Denmark relates to NACE Sections B to N, rather than the broader aggregate of NACE Sections B to S used for the other EU countries. In France and Italy, 'Public administration and defence; compulsory social security' (NACE Rev. 2 section O) is not surveyed while public institutions are not fully covered in 'Education' as well as 'Human health and social work activities' (NACE Rev. 2 sections P and Q). Due to a methodological change there is a break in series for Malta in 2017. The EU and euro area job vacancy rates are calculated on the basis of the information that is available, no estimates are made for missing or incomplete data.
The source dataset for online job advertisements covers over 100 million ads posted in EU countries, collected from several hundred web sources including job search engines and public employment services' websites. To the extent possible, automatic systems filter out multiple postings for the same vacancy. Online job advertisements usually include data on the characteristics of the job (e.g. occupation and location), of the employer (e.g. economic activity) and requirements (e.g. education/skills). This information, only available as unstructured data (natural language text), is processed and classified according to main international classifications.
Context
Job vacancy statistics provide information on the level and structure of labour demand. The job vacancy rate may, in part, reflect the unmet demand for labour, as well as potential mismatches between the skills and availability of those who are unemployed and those sought by employers. Job vacancy statistics are used by the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) to analyse and monitor the development of the labour market at national and European level. These statistics are also a key indicator used for an assessment of the business cycle and for a structural analysis of the economy.
Policy developments in this area have focused mainly on trying to improve the labour market by matching supply and demand more closely, through:
- modernising and strengthening labour market institutions, notably employment services;
- removing obstacles to worker mobility across Europe;
- better anticipating skill needs, labour market shortages and bottlenecks;
- managing economic migration;
- improving the adaptability of workers and enterprises so that there is a greater capacity to anticipate, trigger and absorb economic and social change.
The European jobs and mobility portal (EURES) was set-up with the aim of providing job seekers in the EU with the opportunity to consult all job vacancies publicised in each of the EU countries' employment services. The website provides access to a range of job vacancies from 31 European countries (27 EU countries, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). In March 2022, there were almost nearly 4.0 million vacant posts advertised in EURES.
European job days are another EU initiative in this domain, with hundreds of events being organised across Europe. These aim to raise awareness about the opportunities and practicalities of living and working in another European country, encouraging mobility throughout the EU and putting job candidates in touch with employers who have job vacancies. Such events typically include job fairs, seminars, lectures, workshops and cultural events, all aimed at improving labour mobility.
Notes
- ↑ Euro area (EA) - data presented here is for EA-20, after 1 January 2023.
Explore further
Other articles
Database
- Job vacancy statistics by NACE Rev. 2 activity - quarterly data (from 2001 onwards) (jvs_q_nace2)
- Job vacancy statistics by NACE Rev. 2 activity, occupation and NUTS 2 regions - quarterly data (jvs_q_isco_r2)
- Job vacancy rate by NACE Rev. 2 activity - annual data (from 2001 onwards) (jvs_a_rate_r2)
- Job vacancy statistics - historical data (jvs_h)
- Job vacancy statistics by occupation, NUTS 2 regions and NACE Rev. 2 activity - annual data (2008-2015) (jvs_a_nace2)
- Job vacancy statistics by occupation, NUTS 2 regions and NACE Rev. 1.1 activity - annual data (2000-2008) (jvs_a_nace1)
- Job vacancy statistics by NACE Rev. 1.1 activity - quarterly data (2001Q1-2009Q4) (jvs_q_nace1)
Thematic section
Publications
See also the latest:
Selected datasets
- Job vacancies in number and % - NACE Rev. 2, B-S), quarterly data (tps00172)