What sector had the highest job vacancy rate in the EU in 2024?

New data from Eurostat has found that the highest job vacancy rate in the EU last year was for ‘sales, marketing and development managers’, at 8.4%, the sector that saw the highest unmet labour demand in the bloc.

Other sectors to see high vacancy rates included ‘manufacturing labourers’ (7.3%) ‘other clerical support workers’ (7.3%), ‘other sales workers’ (6.1%) and ‘artistic, cultural and culinary associate professionals’ (6.0%).

Elsewhere, there was a 5.8% vacancy rate recorded for ‘transport and storage labourers’, a 5.7% gap for ‘retail and wholesale trade managers’, a 5.4% gap for ‘business service agents’, a 5.2% gap for ‘other stationary plant and machine operators’ and a 5.0% gap for ‘engineering professionals’, excluding electrotechnology.

Commenting on the findings, Eurostat noted that while occupations in the public sector, such as healthcare workers and teachers, may also face recruitment difficulties, ‘they are less likely to be advertised online, meaning they rank lower or are not featured in this data. On the other hand, IT professions might be over-represented in online job advertisements data.’

Job vacancy rate in Q2

As of the second quarter of this year, some 2.1% jobs in the European Union and 2.2% of jobs in the European area were vacant.

On a country-by-country basis, the highest job vacancy rate in the EU in Q2 2025 was recorded in the Netherlands (4.2%), followed by Belgium (3.9%), Austria (3.4%), Cyprus (3.3%) and Malta (3.2%).

The lowest job vacancy rate in the EU in the same quarter was reported in Romania (0.6%), followed by Spain (0.8%), Poland (0.8%) and Bulgaria (0.9%). No data was available for Denmark. Read more here.

Job Vacancy Rate in the European Union, Q2 2025 (%)

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