A lead that held for a decade
In the second quarter of 2026, 2.2% of posts at the European Union’s tech firms were vacant, against 2.0% across industry, construction and services. Eurostat’s series for the sector begins in 2012, and in each of the 44 quarters from then to the end of 2022 tech’s rate ran between 0.6 and 1.5 points above the economy’s.
Both rates climbed into 2022 and both have fallen since, but not by the same distance. Since the second quarter of 2019, tech’s rate is down 1.4 points, from 3.6%, and the economy’s 0.3, from 2.3%. The gap of 0.2 points is the narrowest of the 58 quarters Eurostat publishes, level with the third quarter of 2025.
The activity the new classification separates from tech, publishing, broadcasting and content production, fell further: from 2.9% in the second quarter of 2019 to 1.3%, level with its lowest reading, at the end of 2013.
Country by country
Twenty-five member states report both years, and Czechia’s series breaks in 2025, which leaves 24 to compare, each within its own survey. In 17 of the 24, tech’s vacancy rate is lower than in 2019, and in 19 its lead over the national economy has narrowed.
Germany publishes its counts as well as its rates. Its tech firms were recruiting for 33,049 posts in the second quarter of 2026, against 54,126 in 2019: a rate of 2.7%, down from 4.7%, against 2.4% across the German economy. In France tech fell from 3.7% to 2.4% while the economy rose to the same 2.4%. In Spain, Italy, Hungary and Lithuania tech went from ahead of the economy to behind it: in Spain 0.7% against 0.9%, in Italy 1.3% against 1.5%.
Tech still leads in 12 of the 25. Of the member states reporting the quarter, Belgium and the Netherlands carry the highest tech rates, 5.2% and 5.1%, and the Netherlands the highest rate across a whole economy, 4.1%. Sweden’s tech firms have 3.8% of posts open against 2.2% nationally, Finland’s 2.1% against 1.1%.
| Member state | Tech, 2019 | Tech, 2026 | Economy, 2019 | Economy, 2026 | Tech’s lead, 2026, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| European Union | 3.6% | 2.2% | 2.3% | 2.0% | +0.2 |
| Belgium | 7.4% | 5.2% | 3.4% | 3.3% | +1.9 |
| Netherlands | 6.1% | 5.1% | 3.3% | 4.1% | +1.0 |
| Sweden | 5.3% | 3.8% | 2.7% | 2.2% | +1.6 |
| Austria | 6.6% | 3.2% | 3.4% | 2.9% | +0.3 |
| Malta | 1.5% | 3.2% | 2.7% | 3.1% | +0.1 |
| Germany | 4.7% | 2.7% | 3.3% | 2.4% | +0.3 |
| Slovenia | 1.9% | 2.5% | 2.3% | 2.5% | 0.0 |
| France | 3.7% | 2.4% | 2.1% | 2.4% | 0.0 |
| Lithuania | 1.9% | 2.2% | 1.4% | 2.3% | -0.1 |
| Estonia | 3.0% | 2.1% | 1.9% | 1.4% | +0.7 |
| Finland | 4.3% | 2.1% | 2.1% | 1.1% | +1.0 |
| Cyprus | 1.3% | 2.0% | 1.7% | 2.6% | -0.6 |
| Ireland | 2.0% | 2.0% | 1.1% | 1.3% | +0.7 |
| Hungary | 3.4% | 1.8% | 2.6% | 2.1% | -0.3 |
| Latvia | 2.2% | 1.6% | 3.2% | 2.2% | -0.6 |
| Luxembourg | 3.2% | 1.5% | 1.7% | 1.4% | +0.1 |
| Poland | 2.7% | 1.4% | 1.1% | 0.8% | +0.6 |
| Italy | 2.2% | 1.3% | 1.4% | 1.5% | -0.2 |
| Greece | 0.2% | 1.0% | 0.7% | 1.8% | -0.8 |
| Czechia | No data | 0.9% | No data | 1.9% | -1.0 |
| Romania | 1.5% | 0.8% | 1.1% | 0.5% | +0.3 |
| Spain | 1.6% | 0.7% | 0.7% | 0.9% | -0.2 |
| Slovakia | 0.7% | 0.5% | 1.1% | 0.9% | -0.4 |
| Bulgaria | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.9% | 0.8% | -0.4 |
| Croatia | 0.6% | 0.2% | 1.5% | 1.3% | -1.1 |
What a vacancy rate counts
It counts open posts, not adverts. A vacancy is a paid post the employer is actively trying to fill from outside the firm, counted on a reference date each quarter, as a share of all posts, occupied and open. One advert can cover several posts, and one post can be advertised on many sites.
It counts by the employer’s sector, not by the job. A developer hired by a bank is a vacancy in finance, and a salesperson hired by a software firm is a vacancy in tech. This edition is about tech firms, not about technical occupations across the economy.
And it counts a stock, not a flow. A rate can fall because fewer posts open or because the ones that open are filled faster, and the vacancy statistics do not say which. The rate is not a count of hires, of lay-offs or of applicants.
- A VACANCY is an open post, not an advert, a hire or an applicant: a paid post, new, unoccupied or about to become free, that the employer is actively trying to fill from outside the firm. The RATE divides open posts by all posts, occupied and open, on a reference date each quarter. One advert can cover several posts, and one post can be advertised on many sites.
- TECH is a sector, not a job. Eurostat classifies a post by what the employer does, under NACE Rev. 2.1 section K: telecommunication, computer programming, consulting, computing infrastructure and other information services. A developer hired by a bank is a vacancy in finance; a salesperson hired by a software firm is a vacancy in tech. Publishing, broadcasting and content production sit in section J.
- Every comparison is the SAME SEASON. The EU series for the sector is published unadjusted, so each year is read in its second quarter, April to June, and never one quarter against another. The rates are published to one decimal, and every gap here is the difference between two printed figures.
So the EU’s 2.2% against 2.0% does not say tech firms are hiring less than other employers, or that tech workers are losing their jobs: it says that in the second quarter of 2026, 2.2 in every hundred posts at EU tech firms were open and being recruited for, against 2.0 across the economy, where in 2019 it was 3.6 against 2.3.
One rate, counted the same way in every member state, and a reading that forgets what it counts says what the source does not.
What these rates do not say
They name no cause. Artificial intelligence, interest rates, the hiring of 2021 and 2022 and the end of the pandemic have all been offered to explain a cooler tech market, and none of them is measured here.
They say nothing about pay, and nothing about how many people apply for each post. A lower vacancy rate means fewer open posts among all posts; whether each one draws more candidates is not in the source.
And they forecast nothing. Each year is read in the same quarter, and nothing here says where the rate goes next. Denmark and Portugal do not report both years and are not in the table; Czechia is shown for 2026 only.
