site.btaUnfilled Manufacturing Job Vacancies Up in EU in 2019-2023, Software Sector Down in Bulgaria

The largest increase in unfilled job vacancies in the European Union in the 2019-2023 period was recorded in the manufacturing sector, according to the latest data released by Eurostat on Wednesday on the website of the European statistical office.

The job vacancy rate measures unmet demand for labour by comparing the number of unfilled posts with the total number of vacant and occupied posts.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2019, 6.52% of jobs in manufacturing in the EU were unfilled. By 2023, this share had reached 10.74%, an increase of 4.2 percentage points.

This marks the largest rise in unfilled positions among economic sectors in the EU over the period under review. 

Overall, across the EU economy, the job vacancy rate increased by 0.5 percentage points, from 2.28% in 2019 to 2.78% in 2023. 

In Bulgaria, the job vacancy rate declined from 0.88% in 2019 to 0.79% in 2023. Among the different occupations, the largest decrease was recorded for software and applications developers and analysts, where the job vacancy rate fell by 2.09 percentage points, from 4.54% to 2.45% in 2023. 

Among sales workers in Bulgaria, excluding managerial positions, the largest increase in unfilled positions was registered, from 1.56% in 2019 to 2.27% in 2023. 

By comparison, in Bulgaria’s manufacturing sector the job vacancy rate edged down slightly over the four-year period, from 0.66% to 0.63% in 2023. 

For the EU as a whole, significant increases in the job vacancy rate in 2019-2023 were also recorded for 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 largest decreases in the EU over the period were observed for life science technicians and related associate professionals (-2.6 pp), 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). This indicates that employers faced comparatively fewer recruitment difficulties for these occupations, Eurostat experts explain.