Increase in number of job vacancies

Published:

The number of job vacancies increased by 5 per cent from the 1st quarter of 2016 to the 1st quarter of 2017. There was an increase in domestic trade and accommodation and food service activities.

There were 58 3000 job vacancies in the 1st quarter of 2017; an increase of 3 000 compared with the same quarter the previous year. As shown in figure 1, this is the first time in several years we have had an increase in the number of job vacancies. The percentage of job vacancies was 2.1 per cent in the 1st quarter of 2017, up from 2.0 per cent the previous year. The job vacancy rate is measured as a percentage of the total number of jobs, i.e. the number of employees and vacancies.

Figure 1. Job vacancies

Job vacancies
Q1-2010 60500
Q1-2011 68900
Q1-2012 69200
Q1-2013 67600
Q1-2014 61800
Q1-2015 60400
Q1-2016 55300
Q1-2017 58300

Increase in domestic trade

A significant proportion of the increase in job vacancies was in domestic trade and in education. Accommodation and food service activities also had an increase from the 1st quarter of 2016 to the same quarter of 2017. There were only small changes in mining and quarrying – an industry dominated by the production of oil and gas.

Decrease in residential care activities

There was a decrease in the number of job vacancies in both residential care activities and in social work activities without accommodation. Professional, scientific and technical activities also had a decrease in job vacancies from the 1st quarter of 2016 to the same quarter of 2017.

Revision of the figures for the period 2014-2016

In 2014, changes were made to some of the input data for the statistics on job vacancies. As a result, we should have started using another input file with the information on occupied jobs than the one we actually used. This is now corrected, and the figures for 2014-2016 are therefore revised. This has only led to small changes in the number of job vacancies. For more information, see About the statistics.

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