REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on implementation of Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies
Date: 2022-07-26
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU Member State, EU statistics, application of EU law, data collection, disclosure of information, employment statistics, job vacancy

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 26.7.2022  COM(2022) 355 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on implementation of Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies    
 
 
1. 

INTRODUCTION 

1.1 

Background 

Job vacancy statistics (JVS) record the number of jobs vacant at a particular moment, namely 
the part of the  labour  demand that is  not met by labour supply. They therefore provide key 
information  on  possible  gaps  between  labour  supply  and  demand  including  labour  market 
mismatches,  which  occur  when  the  skills  or  location  of  people  seeking  a  job  do  not 
correspond to the expectations from possible employers. 

Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 April 2008 
on  quarterly  statistics  on  Community  job  vacancies1  (‘the  JVS  Regulation’)  establishes  the 
framework for producing and evaluating quarterly job vacancy statistics. 

Article 10  of  the  JVS  Regulation  requires  the  Commission  to  report  to  the  European 
Parliament  and  the  Council  on  the  implementation  of  the  Regulation  by  24 June 2010  and 
every three years thereafter. The purpose of this report is to assess the quality both of statistics 
provided  by  Member  States  and  of  European  aggregates.  Furthermore,  areas  where 
improvements could be made in the future are identified and presented. 

This is the Commission’s fifth report to the European Parliament and the Council2. The report 
is based on experience of providing data at quarterly intervals and on documentation provided 
by Member States  in  their annual  quality reports.  This  report  focuses on the quality  of JVS 
received  since  the  previous  edition.  It  examines  the  JVS  sent  to  the  Commission  for  the 
reference  quarters  from  the  first  quarter  of  2019  (2019Q1)  to  the  fourth  quarter  of  2021 
(2021Q4). 

1.2 

Legal framework 

To  complement  the  general  framework  established  by  the  JVS  Regulation,  the  Commission 
adopted two implementing regulations: 

-  Commission Regulation  (EC) No 1062/20083, which defines the seasonal  adjustment 
procedures to be applied from the first quarter of 2014, the structure and content of the 
annual  quality  reports  that  Member  States  are  to  supply  to  the  Commission,  and  the 
dates on which these reports are to be sent; and 

-  Commission Regulation (EC) No 19/20094, which defines the term ‘job vacancy’, sets 
deadlines  for  sending  data  and  specifies  the  periods  to  be  covered  by  the  first  set  of 

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OJ L 145, 4.6.2008, p. 234. 
See previous report, COM(2019) 368 of 13 August 2019. 
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  job  vacancy,  the  reference  dates  for  data  collection,  data 
transmission specifications and feasibility studies (OJ L 9, 14.1.2009, p. 3). 

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data supplied.  The annex  to this legal act  lists  the Member States  running feasibility 
studies and the subjects these studies cover. 

Under the above legislation, all Member States are required to provide time series for the total 
number  of  vacancies  and  number  of  occupied  posts  in  their  country,  starting  from  the  first 
quarter  of  2010.  They  should  provide  the  data  no  more  than  70  days  after  the  end  of  the 
quarter (T+70). In addition, Member States with an overall number of employees exceeding 
3% of the EU total are required to send flash estimates no more than 45 days after the end of 
the quarter (T+45). 

Member States are required to provide the number of job vacancies and of occupied posts for 
all business units and by economic activity, for each section of the NACE Revision 2 (NACE 
Rev.  2)  classification5.  However,  for  small  businesses  (defined  as  units  with  under  10 
employees)  and  NACE  Rev.  2  sections  O-S6  (where  the  main  activities  are  public 
administration,  health  services  and  education),  the  JVS  Regulation  states  that  any  Member 
States that have difficulties in providing data should conduct feasibility studies. 

Although these feasibility studies have enabled some Member States to achieve full coverage 
of the economy, this is  not  yet the case for three of them (Denmark, France and  Italy). The 
data  for  these  countries  are  not  fully  comparable  with  those  of  the  rest  of  the  EU.  In  both 
France  and  Italy,  public  institutions  are  not  covered  within  the  sectors  of  public 
administration,  education  and  human  health  (NACE  Rev.  2,  sections  O,  P  and  Q). 
Furthermore,  France  only  includes  units  with  10  employees  or  more  in  surveys  whereas 
Denmark only covers units within the business economy (NACE Rev. 2, sections B-N). 

Since  the  last  report,  Italy  and  Malta  have  started  transmitting  job  vacancy  data  for  all 
enterprise sizes, including those with 1-9 employees. With this move, Malta now covers the 
full scope of job vacancy statistics. 

The rest of the report is structured as follows: Section 2 presents progress in implementing the 
JVS Regulation over the last 3 years, Section 3  analyses the main impact of the  COVID-19 
crisis on JVS whereas Section 4 assesses the quality of job vacancy statistics. Finally, Section 
5 draws conclusions and suggests ways to meet user expectations even better in the future. 

2.  GENERAL PROGRESS SINCE THE LAST REPORT 

There have been no legislative changes since the adoption of the last report in 2019. 

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Regulation  (EC)  No 1893/2006  of  the  European Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  20 December  2006 
establishing the statistical classification of economic activities NACE Revision 2 and amending Council 
Regulation (EEC) No 3037/90 as well as certain EC Regulations on specific statistical domains (OJ L 
393, 30.12.2006, p. 1). 
Covering: Public administration and defence, compulsory social security (section O), education (section 
P), human health and social work activities (section Q), arts, entertainments and recreation (section R) 
and  other  service  activities  such  as  activities  of  membership  organisations,  repair  of  computers  and 
personal and household goods, and other personal service activities (section S). 

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As  regards  the  production  process,  a  number  of  improvements  have  been  made  to  the  JVS 
production chain, as detailed in the following paragraphs. 

2.1 

Standards for data collection 

JVS  have  been  transmitted  by  all  Member  States  using  the  Statistical  Data  and  Metadata 
eXchange  (SDMX)7  data  structure  and  internationally  agreed  code  lists  (available  online 
through a dedicated registry)8. The same coding was used in Eurostat’s JVS database and to 
transmit JVS to the European Central Bank. 

Since the transmission of JVS for reference quarter 2021Q3 (flash and final), Member States 
have started using version 2.3 of the Data Structure Definition used in SDMX transmissions 
of JVS data, that also incorporates the new NUTS classification9. 

Using the SDMX standards for data transmissions avoids ambiguities and misunderstandings 
with  Member  States  and  simplifies  the  data  validation  process,  making  it  suitable  for 
automation. 

2.2 

Data validation 

The  data  have  been  systematically  validated  through  a  new  tool,  which  checks  whether  the 
codes and data structures used meet the agreed SDMX standards for data transmissions. This 
simplifies  the  production  process  and  reduces  the  risk  of  errors  arising  from  wrong  coding. 
When the file transmitted is not in line with the SDMX standards in force, it is automatically 
rejected. All Member States  receive a success  or failure  notification  by  email  and they may 
access the IT validation report through a web service. 

Since the last report, Eurostat has adapted the production process in order to process all types 
of SDMX formats, be they compact or generic. 

Moreover, for each quarterly transmission, Eurostat makes plausibility checks by comparing 
data  over  time  and  across  NACE  Rev.  2  economic  activities.  In  the  event  of  significant 
quarter-on-quarter  changes  in  the  number  of  occupied  posts  or  job  vacancies,  Eurostat  asks 
Member States to confirm the data or retransmit a corrected data file. When large revisions or 
sudden  changes  are  detected,  in  any  particular  NACE  section,  they  are  systematically 
followed up with the countries concerned. 

2.3 

Seasonal adjustment 

Under  Article 1  of  Commission  Regulation  (EC)  No 1062/2008,  Member  States  are  also 
required  to  transmit  seasonally  adjusted  data.  It  is  mandatory  to  supply  this  data  on  job 
vacancies and occupied posts at least for individual/aggregated NACE Rev. 2 sections B-E, F, 

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https://sdmx.org/ (available only in English). 
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sdmxregistry/ (available only in English). 
Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the 
establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) (OJ L 154, 21.6.2003, 
p. 1). 

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G-I,  J,  K,  L,  M-N,  O-Q,  R-S.  Eurostat  uses  the  data  supplied  on  seasonally  adjusted  job 
vacancies and occupied posts to calculate the seasonally adjusted job vacancy rates as a ratio. 

At the EU and euro area levels, occupied posts and job vacancies are first aggregated across 
Member States and then seasonally adjusted (direct seasonal adjustment). 

Eurostat publishes seasonally adjusted data for European aggregates alongside data that is not 
seasonally adjusted (see Section 4.5). 

Eurostat has improved the seasonal adjustment annex of national quality reports. In particular, 
this updated annex details the seasonal adjustment models used, the outliers detected, the size 
of adjustments and the volatility of results. 

3. 

IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 CRISIS 

3.1 

Survey of Member States 

In March 2020, Eurostat launched a survey for countries to report the main issues they faced 
in  collecting  data  since  the  start  of  the  pandemic.  The  most  frequent  issue  reported  in  the 
survey  was  a  lower  response  rate  from  businesses  due  to  closures  and  new  working 
arrangements  (short-time  work,  teleworking  etc.),  as  confirmed  in  the  metadata  files  for 
2020Q1 and 2020Q2. 

Although the COVID-19 crisis started in most Member States in mid-March 2020, the impact 
was  rarely  visible  in  2020Q1  data,  depending  on  the  reference  date  for  the  JVS  data 
collection. As expected, most countries recorded a year-on-year drop in the job vacancy rate 
for 2020Q2. 

3.2 

Impact on data transmissions 

Despite  these  hindrances,  JVS  data  for  reference  quarters  2020Q1  and  Q2  were  transmitted 
and released on time, for almost all Member States. 

Only France was not able to transmit 2020Q1 data and resumed transmissions for the 2020Q2 
reference period. Italy managed to send final data  in time for both the 2020Q1 and 2020Q2 
news releases but not the corresponding earlier flash estimates. 

3.3 

Developments in job vacancy statistics 

As shown in the chart below, the job vacancy rate first recorded a sharp decrease, both in the 
euro  area  and  in  the  EU,  over  the  2020Q1-Q2  period.  From  2020Q3  onwards,  it  gradually 
recovered  up  to  2021Q4  when  it  reached  2.6%  for  the  EU,  0.3  percentage  points  above  the 
peak recorded in 2019Q1. 

Turning to individual economic activities, the  greatest increases in  JVS  compared with  pre-
pandemic levels  were observed in  NACE sections: J (‘Information and communication’);  N 

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(‘Administrative  and  support  service  activities’  also  including  temporary  employment 
agencies); I (‘Accommodation and food service activities’) and C (‘Manufacturing’)10. 

Job vacancy rates, whole economy
-not seasonally adjusted -

Euro area

EU

%
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2

1

0

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

4.  DATA QUALITY 

This  part  of  the  report  examines  all  quality  dimensions  in  European  statistics  on  job 
vacancies: relevance, accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, coherence and comparability. 

4.1 

Relevance 

Collecting  JVS  data  is  important  for  economic  analysis,  being  the  only  data  source  that 
measures unmet labour demand. Quarterly data on job vacancies are used by the Commission 
(the  Directorate-General  for  Employment,  Social  Affairs  and  Inclusion  and  the  Directorate-
General for Economic and Financial Affairs) and the European Central Bank to monitor short-
term  developments  in  the  business  cycle  and  on  the  labour  market.  The  job  vacancy  rate  is 
one of the principal European economic indicators11, the primary source of information used 
to  analyse  and  monitor  short-term  cyclical  economic  developments  within  the  EU,  the  euro 
area and individual EU countries. This is considered a better indicator than estimates such as 
labour shortage indicators. 

JVS  are  also  used  to  analyse  developments  in  the  unemployment  rate  using  the  Beveridge 
curve,  as  was  done  for  instance  in  the  Commission’s  Joint  Employment  Report12,  in  the 
Autumn 2021 economic forecasts of the Commission13 and in several analytical reports from 
the OECD.  

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See:  https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/jvs_q_nace2/default/table?lang=en  (available  only 
in English, French and German). 
Communication of the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on Eurozone statistics - 
Towards improved methodologies for Eurozone statistics and indicators, COM(2002) 661. 
https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8351 (available only in English). 
See:  European  Commission,  Directorate-General  for  Economic  and  Financial  Affairs,  European 
economic  forecast:  Autumn  2021,  2021,  https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2765/199989  (available  only  in 
English). 

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However,  JVS  would  be  even  more  relevant  if  existing  gaps  in  the  coverage  of  small 
businesses and NACE Rev. 2 sections O to S, including public institutions, were filled. This 
would  also  allow  publishing  the  number  of  vacancies  and  occupied  posts  in  addition  to  the 
rate. This is not possible for the time being due to the incomplete coverage of EU economies.  

Among countries with full coverage of the economy, some flag the number of occupied posts 
and  vacancies  as  confidential.  In  the  third  quarter  of  2022,  Eurostat  will  contact  them  to 
discuss a possible release of the number of occupied posts and vacancies for total economy. 

4.2 

Accuracy 

As  an  indication  of  accuracy,  Member  States  calculate  the  coefficients  of  variation  in  the 
number of job vacancies (not seasonally adjusted), taking into account the characteristics of 
their  national  sample  design.  The  coefficient  of  variation  expresses  the  standard  error  as  a 
percentage of the mean value being estimated. It provides a measure of the variability of the 
estimated  number  of  job  vacancies.  According  to  the  quality  reports  for  the  2020  reference 
year,  the  coefficients  of  variation  for  total  job  vacancies  were  below  15%  in  all  Member 
States except for Ireland, Greece and Cyprus14. 

The sample size and response rate significantly affect the accuracy of estimates. According to 
the quality reports from Member States, the sample size varied from around 2 500 businesses 
in Finland, 2 683 in Malta, 3 300 in Cyprus up to around 100 000 in Poland and 155 000 in 
Germany15. 

The  response  rate  varied  from  13%  in  Germany16  (for  the  postal  survey  conducted  in  the 
fourth quarter) and between 43% and 48% for Greece (depending on the quarters) up to 97% 
or more in Lithuania and 99% in Estonia. In 2020, the median response rate across Member 
States remained high, ranging from 79% to 86% depending on the quarter. 

CZ, HR and LU: Not applicable; no survey conducted and administrative data used 

In terms of revisions, the situation differs for the two releases of the job vacancy rate, i.e. the 
flash  and  the  final  estimates.  The  flash  estimates,  which  are  released  at  T+50  days,  may  be 

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See the JVS metadata: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/jvs_esms.htm. 
This corresponds to the sample size of each fourth quarter when a full postal survey is conducted. The 
other three quarters are surveyed by following up all the respondents who completed the postal survey. 
The job vacancy survey is not mandatory in Germany, which explains the low rate of response to the 
postal survey run  every fourth quarter of the  year. The results  from this survey  are re-weighted using 
administrative  data,  through  generalised  regression  estimation,  to  correct  for  any  bias  due  to  non-
response. 

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revised at T+78 days, when the final estimates are published. Although the flash data do not 
cover all Member States, revisions of the flash estimates did not exceed 0.1 percentage points 
for the euro area and the EU, over the reference period of this report. 

As regards final estimates published at T+78 days, revisions can be measured by comparing 
the first and second transmissions of JVS for a given quarter. For the euro area and the EU, 
revisions  in  the  job  vacancy  rate  never  exceeded  0.1  percentage  points  over  the  reference 
period of this report. 

4.3 

Timeliness and punctuality 

The  timeliness  of  JVS  transmissions  was  generally  satisfactory  as  regards  both  the  flash 
estimate  and  the  final  publication.  Member  States  have  been  reminded  regularly  of  the 
importance  of  meeting  the  mandatory  deadlines  for  transmitting  data  on  principal  European 
economic 
job  vacancy  statistics.  Although  some  delays  were 
occasionally recorded for Greece, there were no structurally late deliveries that could impair 
the timely publication of the JVS release. 

indicators, 

including 

4.4 

Coherence and comparability 

There is no other harmonised source available at European level that measures unmet demand 
on  the  labour  market  which  could  be  used  for  comparing  with  job  vacancy  statistics.  Many 
Member States count vacancies reported to public employment services, but it is problematic 
to  use  these  figures  to  assess  consistency  of  the  JVS.  This  is  because  such  data  may  suffer 
from undercoverage, as not all vacancies may be reported to the public employment service, 
and/or  over-reporting  if  any  filled  vacancies  still  remain  in  the  administrative  register. 
Moreover,  JVS  from  administrative  sources  are  based  on  national  definitions,  which  differ 
from one country to another. 

The  number  of  occupied  posts,  which  is  the  denominator  of  the  job  vacancy  rate,  can  be 
compared  with  information  from  other  sources,  in  particular  the  number  of  employees 
reported  in  the  Labour  Force  Survey  (LFS).  Comparisons  and  subsequent  assessments  of 
differences  must  nevertheless  take  account  of  conceptual  and  survey-related  differences 
between  sources.  In  particular,  job  vacancy  statistics  are  estimated  from  a  sample  of 
businesses, whereas the LFS is based on a sample of households.  

As shown in the figure below, the difference between the number of employees  recorded in 
the LFS and the number of occupied posts recorded in JVS for the whole economy generally 
varies  between  -20%  and  +20%  with  the  exception  of  Luxembourg  (-49%),  Greece  (23%), 
Bulgaria (24%), Hungary (26%) and Romania (32%). 

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Relative difference between the number of employees (LFS) and occupied posts (JVS) for NACE 
sections B-S, annual data for 2020*

* 

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*** 

No information for FR; JVS in France cover only enterprises with 10+ employees and cannot be  
compared with LFS data. 
DK: comparison for the aggregated NACE sections B-N. 
IT: Occupied posts are not recorded for section O and only very partially for sections P and Q. Hence, 
those sections have been omitted in this comparison with LFS data. 

The  negative  gap  measured  for  Luxembourg  can  be  explained  by  the  large  proportion  of 
cross-border  work,  which  creates  large  discrepancies  between  the  domestic  concept  of  the 
labour market used in the LFS and the national one applied in JVS: the LFS surveys resident 
households  only,  whereas  JVS  cover  resident  enterprises,  including  their  non-resident  (i.e. 
cross-border) workers. 

In the case of Greece, the identified gap points to differences between both sources as regards 
methodology and definitions. In particular, job vacancy data only cover businesses with three 
or  more  employees.  Finally,  some  businesses  might  not  be  captured  in  the  sampling  frame 
because  they  started  operating  after  the  business  register  was  updated,  leading  to  some 
underestimation of occupied posts. 

Bulgaria’s  quality  report  stated  that  the  definition  of  employees  used  in  the  LFS  is  broader 
than  for  JVS  statistics.  In  particular,  it  encompasses  people  working  under  a  commercial 
contract (contract for certain work to be done), those working under management and control 
contracts,  and those  working without  a contract  of any kind.  Moreover,  JVS do not  include 
military personnel. 

Hungary  does  not  cover  businesses  with  fewer  than  five  employees  in  its  job  vacancy 
statistics, which explains part of the recorded gap. 

In  its  quality  report,  Romania  explained  that  discrepancies  between  the  LFS  and  JVS 
regarding the number of occupied posts reflected the fact that occupied posts collected using 
JVS methods did not include the following: 

- 

individuals  whose  employment  contract  is  suspended  for  a  given  period  (on  the 
grounds of maternity leave, childcare leave, sick leave or unpaid leave, or because of 
some other type of absence); 

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-  posts  which,  though  temporarily  suspended,  might  fall  vacant  and  be  occupied  for  a 

limited period of time; and 

-  posts in armed forces or in the informal sector. 

Together with the responsible national authorities of the countries listed above, Eurostat will 
continue  monitoring  discrepancies  between  the  number  of  employees  recorded  by  the  LFS 
and the number of occupied posts recorded in JVS. 

It is also important that vacancies and posts on the payroll of temporary agencies are covered 
and assigned to Section N of NACE Rev. 2. 

Finally,  the  main  challenge  as  regards  comparability  is  for  all  Member  States  to  cover  the 
entire economy in their job vacancy surveys, i.e. to include small businesses and NACE Rev.2 
sections O to S, including public institutions. Since the last progress  report,  Italy  and Malta 
have  made  good  progress  and  their  JVS  data  now  cover  enterprises  with  fewer  than  10 
employees. However, as mentioned in Section 1.2, data for Denmark, France and Italy are still 
not fully comparable with that of other Member States. 

4.5 

Accessibility and clarity 

Job  vacancy  statistics  are  disseminated  through  Eurostat’s  standard  distribution  channels, 
namely the online database and the ‘Statistics Explained’ pages on Eurostat’s website17. The 
website provides timely information on the job vacancy rate for both the European aggregates 
and individual Member States, including charts on developments over time. As job vacancy 
statistics  belong  to  the  principal  European  economic  indicators,  a  news  release  is  published 
every quarter18. 

Metadata  supplied  to  users  in  support  of  data  releases  have  been  updated  using  the  annual 
quality reports provided by Member States. These can be found on Eurostat’s website19. 

5.  CONCLUSIONS 

Over  the  past  three  years,  Eurostat  has  continued  to  improve  the  transmission  (with  the 
support  of  NSIs),  validation  and  dissemination  of  European  statistics  on  job  vacancies.  As 
regards  seasonal  adjustments,  Eurostat  has  collected  detailed  methodological  information 
from Member States and made it available to users as an annex to the annual quality reports. 

The COVID-19  crisis  had an impact  on the collection of JVS  data, in  particular  concerning 
response  rates.  However,  all  Member  States  managed  to  transmit  JVS  data  on  time,  except 

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http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Job_vacancy_statistics 

See: 
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Job_vacancy_and_unemployment_rates_-
_Beveridge_curve (available only in English). 
See  the release calendar for euro indicators:  https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/news/euro-indicators/release-
calendar (available only in English, French and German). 
See the JVS metadata and the EU and national quality reports: 
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/cache/metadata/en/jvs_esms.htm (available only in English) 

and 

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France  for  one  quarter.  The  impact  on  the  economy  was  visible  in  JVS  time  series:  after  a 
sizeable drop in 2020Q1 and 2020Q2, the job vacancy rates recovered and even exceeded pre-
pandemic levels, in particular for NACE Rev. 2 Section J (‘Information and communication’). 

Despite the crisis, the European aggregates were published as scheduled. In general, only very 
minor revisions have been recorded for the European aggregates, as regards both the flash and 
final estimates. 

To improve the comparability of JVS across countries further, it is important that all Member 
States fully cover the public sector (in the case of Denmark and Italy) and small businesses (in 
the case of France). Improved coverage would also make it possible to publish the number of 
vacancies, for European aggregates, in addition to the job vacancy rate. Eurostat will continue 
addressing  this  issue,  in  close  cooperation  with  the  countries  concerned,  under  the  ongoing 
review of EU legislation on labour market statistics on businesses. 

This review project aims at evaluating and modernising the whole EU legislation in the field 
of  labour  market  statistics  on  businesses.  In  the  field  of  job  vacancy  statistics,  Eurostat 
envisages to propose the following improvements: 

-  eliminating  possible  biases  by  covering  all  economic  activities  and  business  sizes, 
including small firms with fewer than 10 employees, public institutions and the public 
sector; 

- 

- 

introducing precision targets for the number of vacancies and occupied posts; and 

specifying in the legislation the statistical units used for collecting JVS data, limiting 
them to enterprises and local units. 

Further proposals could emerge from the public consultation that was carried out on the Have 
your say website of the Commission. This was an opportunity for all stakeholders to express 
their  level  of  satisfaction  with  labour  market  statistics  on  businesses,  including  JVS,  and 
suggest possible improvements. 

Eurostat will continue to monitor the compliance and quality of JVS at regular intervals, using 
the data delivered and other national documentation, including quality reports, and follow this 
up closely with the responsible national statistical authorities. 

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EN