"The job vacancy rate in the euro area (EA19) was 1.7% in the first quarter of 2015, down from 1.8% recorded in the previous quarter but stable compared with the first quarter of 2014," according to the statement issued this past week.
"The job vacancy rate in the EU28 was also 1.7% in the first quarter of 2015, stable compared to the previous quarter but up from 1.6% in the first quarter of 2014."
The data, not adjusted seasonally, show that Croatia's job vacancy rate in Q1 2015 was 1.5%, up 0.9 percentage points from Q4 2014.
Year on year, the rate in Croatia increased by 0.4 percentage points, which is why Eurostat notes that Croatia is one of the EU members with the highest yearly increase in the job vacancy rate.
"In the euro area, the job vacancy rate in the first quarter of 2015 was 1.1% in industry and construction and 2.3% in services. In the EU28, the rate was 1.2% in industry and construction and 2.2% in services."
Among the member states for which comparable data are available, the highest job vacancy rates in the first quarter of 2015 were recorded in Germany (2.9%), the United Kingdom (2.4%) Belgium and Sweden (both 2.1%) and Finland (2.0%), and the lowest in Latvia (0.5%), Poland (0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2014), Portugal (0.6%) and Spain (0.7%).
"Among the Member States for which data for the first quarter of 2015 are published, the job vacancy rate rose in sixteen, remained stable in six and fell in five compared to the first quarter of 2014. The largest increases were registered in the Czech Republic (+0.7 percentage points), Malta (+0.5 pp) and Croatia (+0.4 pp)."
"The only decreases were recorded in Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France and Finland (all -0.1 pp)," according to Eurostat's statement.