Job vacancies at 2.4% in Hungary as labour shortage worsens across EU - Eurostat

In the third quarter of 2017, the number of job vacancies in the EU rose to 2% from 1.7% a year earlier, showing increasing labour shortage across the board as the trend affects the construction, manufacturing and service industries alike.

The Czech Republic has it worst with 4.1% of job vacancies unfilled, followed by Belgium at 3.6% and Germany at 2.7% vacancy rate.

Hungary is not far behind as the number of job vacancies grew 0.4 percentage points in 12 months to 2.4%.

In December, the labour shortage reached unprecedented levels in Hungary, the latest report from the Central Statistical Office (KSH) showed .

There are, however, a number of EU member states where there is no shortage of labour and are even struggling with unemployment as they are in the phase of the cycle with sufficient amount of available labour. Only 0.5% of jobs remain unfilled in Greece, followed by Spain and Bulgaria at 0.8%.

The figures from Eurostat, the EC's statistical agency, show that labour shortage affects almost all member states, with the number increasing in 22 members in annual comparison and only dropping in three.

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• labour shortage,
• labour