EU Job Vacancy Rates in 2026: Where Employers Cannot Fill Roles

The EU-Wide Picture

According to Eurostat, the job vacancy rate in the EU was 2.1% in Q1 2026, unchanged from Q4 2025 and down from 2.2% in Q1 2025. In the euro area, the rate was 2.3% - up from 2.2% the previous quarter but below the 2.4% recorded a year earlier. Note that from 2026 the euro area expanded to include Bulgaria, bringing its membership to 21 countries, which affects the composition of the euro area aggregate compared with earlier quarters.

Eurostat notes that the job vacancy rate can reflect, in part, unmet demand for labour as well as potential mismatches between the skills available in the workforce and those sought by employers.

Which EU Countries Have the Highest Vacancy Rates

Among EU countries for which comparable data are available, the highest job vacancy rates in Q1 2026 were recorded in:

• Netherlands: 4%
• Belgium: 3.4%
• Malta: 3.3%
• Austria: 3.1%

The lowest rates were observed in Romania (0.6%) and Poland (0.8%), followed by Bulgaria, Spain and Slovakia, all at 0.9%.

How Rates Changed Compared with a Year Earlier

Compared with Q1 2025, vacancy rates increased in 3 EU countries, remained stable in 8 and fell in 16. The sharpest rises were in Malta (+0.4 percentage points), Portugal and Slovenia (both +0.2 pp).

The largest drops were in Belgium (-0.7 pp), Austria (-0.5 pp), Denmark and Italy (both -0.4 pp), and France (-0.3 pp). Czechia is excluded from this comparison because of a methodological break: a 2025 amendment to employment law automatically closes vacancies older than 6 months unless the employer re-registers them, making Czechia's figures from Q1 2025 onwards not directly comparable with earlier data.

The Sectors with the Most Unfilled Roles

Eurostat breaks down vacancy rates by economic sector. In Q1 2026, the sectors with the highest rates in the EU and euro area were:

• Administrative and support service activities (including temporary employment agencies): 3.1% in the EU, 3.2% in the euro area
• Accommodation and food service activities: 3% in the EU, 3.2% in the euro area
• Construction: 2.8% in the EU, 3.1% in the euro area
• Telecommunications, computer programming and related IT activities: 2.6% in the EU, 2.8% in the euro area
• Professional, scientific and technical activities: 2.4% in the EU, 2.5% in the euro area

Occupations with the Highest Vacancy Rates - Experimental Data

Eurostat also publishes experimental vacancy rates by occupation, based on online job advertisements rather than direct employer surveys. These figures relate to 2024 and carry two caveats. First, several occupations - including primary and secondary school teachers, nursing professionals and others - are excluded from this dataset because they are rarely advertised online, so their actual vacancy pressure is not reflected in these figures. Second, IT-related roles may be over-represented in online job ad data. Read the ranking below with those limitations in mind.

With those caveats, the EU occupations with the highest job vacancy rates in these experimental statistics in 2024 were:

• Sales, marketing and development managers: 8.4%
• Manufacturing labourers and other clerical support workers: 7.3% each
• Other sales workers: 6.1%
• Artistic, cultural and culinary associate professionals: 6%

Searching for Roles Across Borders

Eurostat publishes these figures as part of EU efforts to help match workers and employers across member states. The European Jobs and Mobility Portal (EURES) provides job seekers with access to vacancies from 31 European countries - the 27 EU members plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

Source: Eurostat, Job vacancy statistics.