Which jobs are hardest and easiest to fill in Europe, and why?

Teachers and health workers are among the hardest to recruit in the EU, according to the OECD. Experts explain why some jobs are harder to fill than others.

Teaching, healthcare and IT jobs are among the hardest to fill across Europe, while employers generally find it easier to recruit labourers and food preparation assistants. But the pattern varies by country. Spain, for example, faces a large shortage of food preparation assistants, according to the OECD.

These shortages persist even as young people face a tougher job market. The OECD found that the unemployment gap between young graduates and the wider working-age population has widened in the countries it analysed. The European Central Bank (ECB) also found that job prospects for young people in the eurozone have weakened since 2023.

Among the EU countries covered by the OECD’s Mapping Skill Shortages in OECD Countries report, teaching ranks as the hardest occupation to fill on average, followed by health professionals and information and communications technology (ICT) professionals. Health associate professionals, such as medical technicians and some nursing staff, and business and administration professionals complete the top five.

At the other end, labourers are the easiest to recruit, followed by elementary workers, food preparation assistants, sales workers and assemblers.

The OECD’s index compares occupations within each country. Positive scores point to relative shortages and negative scores to relative surpluses. The scores show how hard jobs are to fill compared with other occupations in the same country. They do not count vacancies or missing workers. The data are from 2024 for most countries.

The trends across 27 European countries, including Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK, show which occupations most often appear among the five hardest or easiest to fill.

Top five occupations that are hardest to fill

Teachers are among the five hardest occupations to fill in 13 countries. Health professionals and ICT professionals follow, with 12 countries each. In seven countries, managers make the top five, while health associate professionals, personal care workers, and business and administration professionals each do so in six countries.

Top five occupations that are easiest to fill

Labourers are among the five easiest occupations to fill in 14 countries, followed by food preparation assistants in 12 and other clerical workers in 11. Elementary workers make the list in 10 countries and assemblers in eight.

Looking beyond the five highest and lowest scores, the OECD groups occupations into five categories, depending on how hard it is to fill them compared with other occupations in the same country. This shows that health, teaching and ICT jobs are hard to fill in most countries.

Why is Europe short of doctors and nurses?

Health professionals are hard to find in 23 of the 27 countries, while health associate professionals are in short supply in 21. Health associates are also hard to find in 21 countries.

“EU and European healthcare systems are unable to retain and recruit nurses at the frontline of care, which is leading to extensive nursing shortages everywhere,” Paul De Raeve and Manuel Ballotta of the European Federation of Nurses Associations (EFN) told Euronews Business.

They said high patient-to-nurse ratios, unsafe working conditions and widespread mental health problems make nursing less attractive. They also pointed to low pay, limited career prospects, a lack of professional recognition and frequent exposure to harassment and violence.

Dr Ole Johan Bakke, president of the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME), pointed to worsening working conditions.

“Doctors across Europe are increasingly expected to compensate for systemic workforce shortages through excessive working hours and increased workloads. Violence against healthcare professionals, an increasingly common phenomenon experienced by doctors, further compounds these problems,” he told Euronews Business.

He said these pressures contribute to burnout and make medicine less attractive as a lifelong career.

Teacher shortages go beyond pay

Teachers are hard to find in 21 countries. In the other six countries (Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain and Turkey), the OECD classifies teaching as broadly in balance.

“Teacher shortages are no longer simply a question of filling vacant positions; they increasingly concern the long-term attractiveness and sustainability of the teaching profession,” Daniel Wisniewski, secretary general of the European Federation of Education Employers, told Euronews Business.

He said competitive salaries remain essential, but teachers also face growing demands as schools adopt digital tools, make classrooms more inclusive and take on more responsibility for student wellbeing. Teachers also face more administrative work.

He pointed out that the reasons behind teacher shortages go well beyond pay, although competitive salaries remain an essential factor. Teaching has become an increasingly complex profession, with demands as schools adopt digital tools, make classrooms more inclusive and take on more responsibility for student wellbeing. Teachers also face more administrative work.

“We need to recognise that teachers’ working conditions, professional autonomy, career development opportunities and the quality of school leadership are equally important in determining whether people enter and remain in the profession,” he said.

Will AI make ICT jobs easier to fill?

Information and communications technology (ICT) professionals and business and administration professionals are hard to find in 18 countries each. Isabel Skak Olufsen, an economist at the OECD, said digitalisation had increased demand for ICT professionals. However, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) may reduce demand for some ICT professionals in the future, particularly for entry-level positions, she added.

Low-skilled and routine jobs are the easiest to fill

Labourers are easy to find in 21 countries, followed by food preparation assistants in 17 and elementary workers in 16. Sales workers and other clerical workers are easy to find in 15 countries each.

Some countries go against the European pattern

In Norway, labourers are the hardest workers to recruit, even though they are relatively easy to find in 21 of the countries studied. Food preparation assistants are the hardest to recruit in Spain, although they are easy to find in much of Europe. In France, elementary workers are the hardest to recruit.

Several northern and western European countries buck the trend for ICT jobs. The OECD classifies the labour market for ICT professionals as broadly in balance in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, and in surplus in Austria, Switzerland and the UK.

Shortages depend on economic structure

“The occupations facing the greatest shortages differ across countries for several reasons. Demand for occupations depends on countries’ economic structure,” Olufsen told Euronews Business.

She pointed to South Korea and Germany, where large manufacturing sectors help explain shortages in several mid-skilled occupations, including assemblers and machine operators.

The supply of workers also varies by country, Olufsen said. Countries that pay teachers and health professionals relatively well may face fewer shortages in those occupations.

Skills matching and training

“Europe’s labour shortages are increasingly structural rather than temporary. Demographic change, skills mismatches, job quality and limited labour mobility all play a role,” Pia-Johanna Fallström, a spokesperson for the European Labour Authority (ELA), told Euronews Business.

She said Europe needs better training, jobs with better working conditions and a better match between workers’ skills and employers’ needs. She also called for fair labour mobility to help workers in countries with a surplus find jobs where they are needed.

“ELA’s analysis shows that many occupations reported as being in shortage in one country can be a surplus elsewhere,” she added.

Source: www.euronews.com