REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on implementation of the Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies
Date: 2010-08-04
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU statistics, Eurostat, data collection, employment statistics, exchange of information, job vacancy

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Brussels, 4.8.2010 
COM(2010) 421 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on implementation of the Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and 
of the Council on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on implementation of the Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and 
of the Council on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies 

1. Introduction  

Job  vacancies  are  generally  regarded  as  an  important  factor  when  it  comes  to  analysing  the 
demand  side  of  the  labour  market.  Quarterly  data  on  job  vacancies  are  required  by  the 
Commission  and  the  European  Central  Bank  to  monitor  short-term  developments  in  the 
business  cycle  and  the  labour  market.  Data  on  job  vacancies  broken  down  by  economic 
activity  are  required  by  the  Commission  as  part  of  the  European  Employment  Strategy  for 
monitoring and analysing the level and structure of labour demand. 

Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 April 2008 
on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies1 (JVS) established the framework for the 
production,  transmission  and  evaluation  of  quarterly  job  vacancy  statistics.  Article  10  of 
Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 requires the Commission to report to the European Parliament 
and the Council on its implementation by 24 June 2010 and every three years thereafter. The 
report  is  expected  to  assess  the  quality  of  the  statistics  provided  by  Member  States  and  the 
quality of the European aggregates, and should identify potential areas for improvement.  

This is the first report that the Commission is required to submit to the European Parliament 
and to the Council. 

2. The implementation steps  

2.1 Implementing Regulations  

Following  the  approval  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  453/2008,  two  implementing  Commission 
Regulations  were  approved  shortly  afterwards,  covering  a  number  of  detailed  aspects  that, 
according  to  Regulation  (EC)  No  453/2008,  had  to  be  further  specified  by  Comitology 
procedure.  

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OJ L 145, 4.6.2008, p. 234. 

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- Commission Regulation (EC) No 1062/20082 defines:  

•  The  seasonal  adjustment  procedures  for  applying  article  3(3)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 
453/2008. It says that the transmission of seasonally adjusted data must start at the latest when 
time  series  with  at  least  16  observed  quarters  are  available.  It  also  defines  in  an  annex,  at 
which NACE Rev. 2 aggregation level the data should be transmitted.  

• The structure, contents and transmission dates of the quality reports that Member States are 
required  to  provide  to  the  Commission  under  article  6(2)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  453/2008. 
The  first  quality  report  has  to  be  transmitted  to  the  Commission  by  31  August  2011  at  the 
latest.  

- Commission Regulation (EC) No 19/20093 covers the following aspects:  

•  Definitions  related  to  'job  vacancy'  for  the  purposes  of  applying  article  2(1)  of 
Regulation(EC) No 453/2008, specifically the enumeration of ‘active steps to find a suitable 
candidate’ and what is considered a ‘specific period of time’ for filling the vacancy.  

• The reference dates for collecting quarterly figures, with a preference for data collection on 
a continuous basis or the calculation of a representative average over the quarter.  

• Transmission deadlines and the date of the first reference quarter mentioned in Article 5 (1) 
of Regulation (EC) No 453/2008. The transmission deadline is fixed at 70 days after the end 
of  the  quarter.  A  limited  number  of  Member  States,  representing  more  than  3%  of  the  total 
number of employees in the European Union, should send at 45 days the total number of job 
vacancies and occupied posts. The first reference quarter is the first quarter of 2010. This also 
indirectly defines the reference period for the transmission of back data, i.e. the four quarters 
of 2009.  

•  Which  Member  States  are  required  to  conduct  feasibility  studies  for  collecting  data  from 
business  units  with  fewer  than  ten  employees4,  as  provided  for  Article  7  (1)  of Regulation 
(EC)  No  453/2008,  the  structure  of  these  feasibility  studies  and  when  they  have  to  be 
provided to the Commission (February 2010).  

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Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  1062/2008  of  28  October  2008  implementing  Regulation  (EC)  No 
453/2008  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  on  quarterly  statistics  on  Community  job 
vacancies, as regards seasonal adjustment procedures and quality reports. (OJ L 285, 29.10.2008, p. 3). 
Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No  19/2009  of  13  January  2009  implementing  Regulation  (EC)  No 
453/2008  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  on  quarterly  statistics  on  Community  job 
vacancies,  as  regards  the  definition  of  a  job  vacancy,  the  reference  dates  for  data  collection,  data 
transmission specifications and feasibility studies. (OJ L 9, 14.1.2009, p. 3) 
Denmark, France, Italy and Malta. 

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• Which Member States are required to conduct feasibility studies for collecting data relating 
to NACE Rev. 2 sections O, P, Q, R and S5, as provided for article 7(1) of Regulation (EC) 
No 453/2008, the structure of the feasibility studies and when they have to be provided to the 
Commission (February 2010).  

2.2 Building up capacities 

During 2008 and 2009, the Commission took various steps in conjunction with the Member 
States  to  ensure  that  they  will  comply  with  the  reporting  obligations  under  the  different 
Regulations.  

-  Grants:  There  were  two  calls  for  proposals,  one  each  year,  restricted  to  the  European 
Statistical  System  with  a  view  to  creating  the  capabilities  needed  to  give  effect  to  the  legal 
base. The main focus was on boosting the coverage and enhancing the quality of data on job 
vacancies for business units with fewer than 10 employees and for NACE Rev. 2 sections O, 
P, Q, R and S. The countries which made proposals and received financial support from the 
European  Commission  were  Austria,  Denmark,  Malta,  Italy,  Latvia,  Poland,  Romania, 
Norway and Croatia.  

-  Workshops:  Eurostat  co-organised  two  methodological  workshops,  one  in  Nuremberg 
(Germany) in December 2008 and one in Neuchâtel (Switzerland) in November 2009. Some 
twenty  Member  States  took  an  active  part,  along  with  other  countries  like  Norway, 
Switzerland and Israel, and International Organisations (European Central Bank and OECD). 
The  purpose  was  to  exchange  best  practices  and  experiences  in  collecting  job  vacancy 
statistics and to discuss methodological issues.  

-  Work  in  Member  States: All  Member  States  reported  being  broadly  able  to  report  the 
required data collection for the first reference quarter 2010; however the following difficulties 
are likely to be experienced for the first reference quarter:  

a) coverage issues; some Member States will have difficulties to cover NACE Rev. 2 sections 
O to S, especially for section O, and business units with fewer than 10 employees;  

b) lack of detailed methodological guidelines; 

c)  low  precision  of  estimates  of  the  number  of  vacancies  for  the  breakdown  by  economic 
activities. 

These  difficulties  can  be  expected  to  clear  up  over  time  as  Member  States  become  more 
experienced  in  collecting  vacancy  statistics  and  fine-tune  their  production  systems.  Eurostat 
will develop, together with Member States, clear methodological guidelines to be followed.  

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Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Malta and Austria. 

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2.3 Financial actions in 2010 

Article  8  (1)  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  453/2008  says  that  'For  the  first  three  years  of  data 
collection Member States may receive a financial contribution from the Community towards 
the cost of the work involved'.  

To this end a call for proposals (restricted to the European Statistical System) was launched 
on 24 March 2010; the total amount to be awarded to beneficiaries is put at 800 000 €.  

3) Quality of the statistics provided by Member States  

The first reference quarter for which countries have a statutory duty to report data is the first 
quarter  of  2010.  First  transmissions  are  required  by  15  May  and  10  June.  Additionally, 
detailed quality reports by Member States have to be in by 31 August of 2011. It follows that, 
at this stage, an in-depth assessment of the data quality cannot be given yet. The next report to 
the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council,  due  in  three  years’  time,  will  contain  a  detailed 
quality assessment.  

Nonetheless  a  tentative  assessment  can  be  made  using  the  data  Member  States  have 
transmitted  so  far  on  a  voluntary  basis  to  Eurostat,  complemented  by  the  qualitative 
information gathered when preparing the Workshops. Regarding the completeness of the data 
received, the situation for the fourth quarter of 2009 can be summarised as follows:  

- Eighteen countries6 have transmitted all the variables requested by the Regulations. 

-  Five  countries  have  not  transmitted  all  the  variables  requested  by  the  Regulations.  Spain, 
France  and  Italy  have  analysed  in  their  feasibility  studies  the  possibility  of  collecting  the 
missing  variables.  Portugal  does  not  transmit  data  on  NACE  Rev.  2  section  O;  and  the 
Netherlands only sends data on occupied posts for the economy as a whole. 

-  Seven  countries7  have  not  yet  transmitted  or  interrupted8  transmission  of  data  on  job 
vacancies. 

A  growing  number  of  Member  States  are  disseminating  their  Job  Vacancy  Statistics 
nationally,  either  through  press  releases  or  making  available  the  figures  on  their  websites. 
This  shows  that  countries  think  their  figures  are  of  sufficient  quality  to  be  released  to  the 
general public. 

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Bulgaria,  the  Czech  Republic,  Germany,  Estonia,  Greece,  Cyprus,  Latvia,  Lithuania,  Luxembourg, 
Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom. 
Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. 
Belgium stopped transmitting data on job vacancies in 2007Q4. 

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4) Quality of European aggregates  

Only in the next report to the European Parliament and the Council, in three years’ time, will 
it be feasible to assess the quality of the European aggregates. Nonetheless, as some countries 
do not and will not, in the coming years, collect information on business units with ten or less 
employees  or  on  the  NACE  Rev.  2  section  O,  it  will  not  be  possible  for  the  time  being  to 
calculate  European  aggregates  that  will  cover  all  business  units’  sizes  and  all  economic 
activities. Eurostat will continue discussions with Member States with the aim of overcoming 
the  coverage  gaps  so  that  European  aggregates  covering  the  whole  economy  can  be 
calculated. 

5) Main improvements and recent developments 

A number of improvements took place in 2009 and at the beginning of 2010 in most Member 
States. All countries completed, or are about to complete, the transition from the NACE Rev. 
1 classification to NACE Rev. 2. Denmark, Austria and Norway developed new national job 
vacancy  surveys  from  scratch  during  2009;  these  will  enable  them  to  meet  their  statutory 
requirements. Spain and France have adapted their questionnaires to bring their concept of job 
vacancies into line with the Regulation (EC) No 453/2008. Hungary extended the coverage of 
its survey to business units with fewer than five employees. Finally, the United Kingdom is 
the first Member State able to start producing seasonally adjusted figures. There has been also 
an alignment to the definition of job vacancy included in the Regulation. As a result, vacancy 
statistics across countries follow now a harmonised definition. 

At the beginning of 2010 Eurostat received the feasibility studies required by Article 7(1) of 
Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 from all the Member States concerned, with the exception of 
Germany, which decided to collect data for the Public Administration and therefore does not 
need to provide a feasibility study. The documentation is currently being analysed in depth, 
but the main conclusions of the reports are: 

- Austria: There are some problems with the classification of NACE Rev. 2 sections O to S in 
the  business  register,  which  needs  to  be  improved  in  the  medium  term;  but  from  the  first 
quarter of 2010 NACE Rev. 2 sections O to S will be delivered. 

-  Denmark:  The  feasibility  studies  reveal  no  major  constraints  on  collecting  data  on  job 
vacancies  for  firms  with  fewer  than  ten  employees  and  NACE  Rev.  2  sections  O  to  S. 
Nevertheless, Denmark has decided to postpone the collection of NACE Rev. 2 sections O to 
S.  Vacancies  for  enterprises  with  fewer  than  ten  employees  will  be  collected  from  the  first 
quarter of 2010. 

- France: The feasibility study concludes that, from 2008 to 2012, it will be possible to collect 
data  only  on  annual  job  vacancies  for  business  units  with  fewer  than  ten  employees.  It  is 
expected  that  in  2013,  it  might  be  feasible  to  calculate  quarterly  job  vacancy  statistics  for 
business units with fewer than ten employees. For their part, data for sections R and S and the 
private sector parts of NACE Rev.2 sections P and Q are being collected. For NACE Rev. 2 
sections O, P and Q parts that correspond to the Public Administration no quarterly data will 
be available (only annual data from 2013). 

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- Spain: The preliminary study concluded that it is feasible, although complex and expensive, 
to  collect  quarterly  data  on  job  vacancies  for  NACE  Rev.  2  section  O  and  they  will  be 
transmitted for the reference period 2010Q1. NACE Rev.2 sections P, Q, R and S are being 
collected. 

- Italy: The study concludes that all options examined so far to collect data for business units 
with  fewer  than  10  employees  and  for  the  NACE  Rev.  2  sections  O  to  S  are  unfeasible.  A 
more positive assessment is made of the chances of collecting data for NACE Rev. 2 sections 
O  to  S  for  the  private  sector.  In  any  case,  more  analysis  is  needed  and  more  definitive 
conclusions will be provided in December 2010. 

- Malta: The main findings of the study are that data for NACE Rev. 2 sections O to S can be 
collected while quality and cost considerations make it unfeasible to collect data for business 
units with fewer than ten employees. 

Eurostat will work together with Member States to draw up action plans in order to expand 
the coverage as far as possible, taking into account the problems described in the feasibility 
studies. 

6) Conclusions 

Since  the  publication  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  453/2008  two  implementing  Regulations  have 
been approved with more technical details. Member States have received financial support in 
2008 and 2009 to prepare for the transmission of data on quarterly job vacancies relating to 
the first quarter  of  2010.  The financial  support will continue during 2010-2012, as stated in 
the Regulation (EC) No 453/2008. In 2008 and 2009 two Workshops took place in order to 
build up technical capacities and to share experiences in the field of job vacancies. As a result 
of  these  and  further  efforts  by  Member  States,  most  of  them  were  fully,  or  almost  fully 
prepared,  at  the  beginning  of  2010  to  comply  with  their  legal  obligations.  It  is,  however, 
necessary to address remaining coverage gaps in order to enable the calculation of European 
aggregates. 

For  the  next  report  to  the  European  Parliament  and  Council,  in  June  2013,  more  detailed 
information will have been gathered through the national quality reports and from official data 
transmission exercises; this will enable a more complete assessment to be made of the quality 
and relevance of the quarterly statistics on job vacancies. 

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