What occupations were in the greatest demand in 2024?
Ahmet Kurt, Unsplash
The European labour market in 2024 is facing serious skills shortages in a number of key areas. According to the latest Eurostat data, sales, marketing and business development managers were the most scarce category, accounting for 8.4 per cent of all vacancies, the highest of all occupations.
Following top sales managers are production line workers and office support staff, both categories with the same vacancy rate: 7.3 per cent.
Other in-demand occupations include:
- sales consultants and other sales specialists - 6.1%;
- employees engaged in creative, cultural and culinary industries - 6.0%.
This data is based on an analysis of online job ads collected by Eurostat Web Intelligence Hub as part of a pilot approach. This method allows to track short-term trends and react faster than traditional surveys. However, as the authors of the study emphasise, such data can be skewed: IT jobs are often over-represented online, while jobs in the public sector, including teachers and medics, are under-represented.
