Job vacancy rate: main ups & downs by occupation

Experimental statistics partly compiled from a novel data source on online job advertisements (OJA) show that between 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic) and 2023, ‘manufacturing labourers’ recorded the largest increase in their job vacancy rate (+4.2 percentage points (pp)) in the EU, implying there were likely more difficulties in recruiting staff. The next occupations that recorded the biggest rises in their job vacancy rates were: ‘sales, marketing and development managers’ (+3.0 pp), ‘other sales workers’ (+2.8 pp), ‘transport and storage labourers’ (+2.5 pp) and ‘other clerical support workers’ (+2.4 pp).

The biggest drops were observed for ‘life science technicians and associate professionals’ (-2.6 pp), followed by ‘database and network professionals’ (-1.7 pp), ‘software and applications developers and analysts’ (-1.5 pp), ‘hotel and restaurant managers’ (-1.1 pp) and ‘handicraft workers’ (-1.0 pp). There were likely fewer difficulties in recruiting staff for those occupations.

Source dataset: jvs_a_isco3_r1

A falling job vacancy rate does not necessarily mean that these occupations are shrinking or vice versa. In the case of ‘database and network professionals’, although there was a decrease (-1.7 pp to 5.1% in 2023), the job vacancy rate remained well above the average across all occupations (2.4%) whereas the share of employees increased by 0.2 pp between 2019 and 2023.

The same holds for ‘software and applications developers and analysts’, which registered a decrease in its job vacancy rate to 6.9% in 2023, but whose share of employees increased by 0.5 pp in the same period.

By contrast, some occupations whose job vacancy rate increased saw their share of employees decrease, for instance, ‘transport and storage labourers’ (-0.2 pp between 2019 and 2023) and ‘other sales workers’ (-0.1 pp).

Source dataset: jvs_a_isco3_r1