Europe’s labour market is recovering – or at least showing signs of recovery – from COVID’s repercussions, but is still far away from meeting demands. The latest statistics shown a decrease in vacant positions in the job market, with employment also up in the second quarter of the year.
The job vacancy rate – the proportion of total posts that are vacant – decreased from 2.8% in the first quarter to 2.7%. In the same period, the employment rate of people aged 20-64 stood at 75.4%, a slight increase of 0.1 percentage points. That, however, comes secondary to the broader trend: the EU’s longer term job vacancy rate has continued increasing annually, failing to match supply with demand.
The rate of job vacancies in the EU has continued to increase since 2020, when many people were furloughed or laid off to cut costs due to the pandemic. Despite an increase in the employment rate in the second quarter, an earlier report by the European Commission said labour shortages and skill gaps exist.
The creation of new jobs and the need to replace workers who retire are causing “shortages,” which are being reflected in these statistics, it added. These shortages will likely increase, according to the report, with the projected decline in the working-age population from 265 million in 2022 to 258 million by 2030.
Which country has the most job vacancies
Among the EU member states with figures available to Eurostat, the Netherlands had the highest job vacancy rate in the EU, with 4.7% of the total jobs still needing to be filled. Bulgaria and Romania, on the other hand, only recorded a 0.8% job vacancy rate in the same quarter.