Belgium still has the highest percentage of unfilled posts in the Euro zone, with its job-vacancy rate for the first quarter of 2018 at 3.5%, according to data published on Monday by Eurostat. The average for the zone was 2.1%, slightly higher than the preceding quarter, according Eurostat, the European Union (EU) statistical office.
The percentage of unfilled posts was 2.2% for the first quarter of the year in the EU as a whole, up from 2% in the preceding quarter and 1.9% in the first quarter of 2017.
Among EU member States for which comparable figures were available, the highest job vacancy rates in the first quarter of this year were registered in the Czech Republic (4.8%), Belgium (3.5%), Germany and Sweden (2.9% each), and the Netherlands and Austria (2.8%). Belgium thus has the highest rate of unfilled vacancies for the euro-zone, ahead of Germany.
The lowest rates were observed in Greece (0.7%), Portugal and Spain (0.9%each) and Ireland and Bulgaria (1.0% each).
On a year-on-year basis, the rates increased in 16 EU member States, was stable in eight, and went down in four: Greece (-0.3%), Estonia (-0.2%) and Malta and Rumania (-0.1%).
The Brussels Times
