DS Labour market > Information on data > Job vacancies > EN > Revamp

Concepts and definition

Job vacancy statistics provide information on unmet labour demand. Information on job vacancies is used for business cycle analysis and assessing mismatches between labour supply (employed and unemployed persons) and labour demand (occupied and vacant posts).

A job vacancy is defined as a paid post that is newly created, unoccupied, or about to become vacant:

  • for which the employer is taking active steps and is prepared to take further steps to find a suitable candidate from outside the enterprise concerned, and
  • which the employer intends to fill either immediately or within a specific period.

The job vacancy rate (JVR) measures the proportion of total posts that are vacant, as defined above, expressed as a percentage. It is calculated as the number of job vacancies divided by the sum of the number of job vacancies and occupied posts as shown in the following formula:

Formula for calculation of job vacancy rate. The job vacancy rate equals the quotient of the number of jobs divided by the sum of the number of occupied posts and number of job vacancies. This quotient is multiplied by 100.

Data transmission, availability and dissemination

Eurostat publishes quarterly and annual data on job vacancies. The transmission of quarterly job vacancy data is compulsory from January 2010 onwards.

EU members whose number of employees represents more than 3% of the EU total transmit the aggregate number of vacancies and occupied posts within 45 days after the end of the reference quarter. From this information, Eurostat derives a flash estimate of the job vacancy rate.

The data collection is based on EU regulation 19/2009 on job vacancy statistics. Data for all participating countries is available approximately 75 days following the end of the reference quarter. The data are broken down by economic activity and enterprise size and – on a voluntary basis – by region and occupation.

Data quality

Information can be found in the metadata on  job vacancy statistics and through the national quality reports available in the same document.

Further reading

DS Labour market > Information on data > Job vacancies > 2nd block > EN > REVAMP

1st and 2nd International Workshops on Methodologies for Job Vacancy Statistics - Proceedings
This publication contains the proceedings of two workshops on methodology for job vacancy statistics. The first workshop was jointly organized by Eurostat and the German Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and held in Nuremberg, 11-12 December 2008. The second one took place in Neuchâtel on 18-19 November 2009 and was jointly organized by Eurostat and the Federal Statistical Office of Switzerland. Different aspects of methodology are covered, namely: different approaches of data collections (stand-alone survey, collection coupled with another survey, use of administrative sources), weighting and estimation methods (grossing up), methods of error measurement and experiences with the implementation of new national job vacancy data collections, including for specific economic activities and in the context of changes in classifications. These documents submitted for the work sessions of the workshops constitute a very important contribution to the further improvement of job vacancy statistics and to share within Member States knowledge on best practice, in particular in the framework of Regulation 453/2008 on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies.
4 November 2010