Only Spain has fewer job vacancies than Portugal

  • ECO News
  • 19 June 2017

The job vacancy rate is the second lowest in the European Union. Even so, it had a slight increase in comparison to 2016.

Among all European Union member states, only Spain has fewer job vacancies than Portugal. In the first quarter of 2017, only 0.9% jobs were vacant in Portugal, while in the Spanish economy, the percentage was 0.8%, states data disclosed by Eurostat.

The weight of vacant jobs in the overall amount of job positions in an economy is the indicator of the labor force demand. Eurostat considers as available employment recently-created job positions (or a position which is about to become vacant) and for which employers want to hire a worker who does not belong to the organization.

Although it is one of the lowest percentages, the job vacancies increased in comparison to the same quarter of 2016 and it also in comparison to the end of last year, which indicates there has been a rise in job offers. Considering the Portuguese unemployment rate continues to be very high (10.1% in the first quarter of 2017), this is a positive development, which suggests companies are more willing to hire new employees.

However, in comparison to the European Union average, or the Euro Area, the percentage of jobs available in Portugal is much lower: in both set of countries, the average percentage is 1.9%. Czech Republic, Belgium and Finland have the largest job vacancy percentage.