The job vacancy rate in the Eurozone was 1.7% during the second quarter of 2014, unchanged compared with the previous quarter but an increase compared with 1.5% during Q2 2013, according to Eurostat, the statistical body of the European Union.

The job vacancy rate across the 28 Member States was 1.6% in Q2 2014, also unchanged compared with the previous quarter, and up from 1.5% in Q2 2013.

The job vacancy rate (JVR) measures the proportion of total posts that are vacant expressed as a percentage: JVR = (number of job vacancies) / (number of occupied posts = number of job vacancies).

A job vacancy is defined as a paid post (newly created, unoccupied, or soon to become vacant) for which the employers is taking active steps to find a suitable candidate from outside the enterprise.

In the Eurozone, the job vacancy rate in the second quarter was 1% in the industrial and construction sectors, and 2.2% in the services sector. Across all 28 Member States the job vacancy rate was 1.1% in the industrial and construction sector and 2.1% in the services sector. 

Among the Member States for which comparable data are available, the highest job vacancy rates in Q2 2014 were in Germany (2.8%), Belgium (2.4%), and the United Kingdom (+2.3%). The lowest rates were reported in Latvia (+0.4%), Poland (+0.5% in Q1 2014), and Portugal and Spain (both (+0.6%). 

Among the Member States the job vacancy rate rose in 15 countries, remained stable in four, and fell in seven, compared with the second quarter of 2013.

The largest increases were registered in Cyprus and the United Kingdom (both +0.4 percentage points), the Czech Republic, Germany and Luxembourg (all +0.3 pp), and the largest decreases in Spain (-0.3 pp) and Austria (-0.2 pp).