site.btaJob Vacancy Rate Drops in EU, Euro Area, Remains Stable in Bulgaria, Q1 2024

The job vacancy rate in the EU in the first quarter of 2024 was 2.6%, the same as in the last quarter of 2023 and down from 2.9% in the first quarter of 2023, according to Eurostat data released on Friday.

In the euro area, the rate was 2.9%, the same as in the last quarter of 2023 and down from 3.2% in the first quarter of 2023.

The job vacancy rate in the first quarter of 2024 in Bulgaria stood at 0.8%, up from 0.7% a quarter earlier and down from 0.9% in the first quarter of 2023.

The employment rate of people aged between 20 and 64 in the EU was 75.7% in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 0.2 percentage points (pp) compared with the previous quarter.

Between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, the employment rate varied across the EU Member States. Croatia (+1.8 pp), Slovenia (+1.3 pp) and Bulgaria and Greece (both +0.9 pp) registered the highest increases among the 15 EU countries where employment rose.