Europe’s hiring market has been quite strange lately.
Some industries are adding jobs because business is expanding. Others are hiring because they cannot find enough people to replace those leaving. And some have plenty of vacancies but are struggling to persuade workers to take them.
The latest Eurostat figures give us a useful starting point. In the first quarter of 2026, the EU job vacancy rate was 2.1%, with services at 2.3% and industry and construction at 1.8%. But the sector-level figures are more revealing. Construction recorded a 2.8% vacancy rate, accommodation and food services 3.0%, information and communication 2.6%, and professional, scientific and technical activities 2.4%.
So which industries are actually winning?
It depends on what we mean by winning.
Is it where employers are most actively looking for people, construction, hospitality, administrative services, technology and professional services are all near the front of the pack.
If we mean where the shortage of suitable workers is becoming a structural problem, healthcare, construction, engineering, IT and transport deserve much more attention.
The European Labour Authority’s latest labour-shortage report found persistent shortages across healthcare, engineering, IT and construction, while also pointing to demographic change, skills mismatches and limited labour mobility as major reasons those gaps remain.
That tells us something important: Europe’s hiring race isn’t being won by one industry.
It is being driven by several very different forces.
The Industries Hiring in Europe
1. Construction Is Still Hiring Because Europe Is Still Building
Construction has one of the clearest claims to the top of the table.
The EU recorded a 2.8% job vacancy rate in construction in Q1 2026, above the overall EU rate of 2.1%.
But the number alone doesn’t explain what is happening.
Europe needs workers for housing, infrastructure, energy projects and the wider transition towards a lower-carbon economy. At the same time, a significant portion of the existing construction workforce is ageing.
That creates a difficult combination for employers.
Demand remains.
The people available to meet that demand are not increasing quickly enough.
The European Labour Authority continues to identify construction trades among Europe’s widespread shortage occupations, including electricians, welders, plumbers, bricklayers and other skilled trades.
For employers, this means recruitment isn’t simply about posting more vacancies. Many construction companies are competing for the same skilled workers, which makes mobility and international recruitment increasingly important.
2. Technology Is Hiring, But the Story Has Changed
Information and communication remains one of Europe’s stronger hiring sectors.
The EU’s job vacancy rate for information and communication activities was 2.6% in Q1 2026, above the economy-wide rate. Telecommunications, computer programming, consulting, computing infrastructure and other information services recorded a 2.6% vacancy rate as well.
But there is an interesting detail here.
Europe’s technology workforce is growing while some technology occupations have actually seen their vacancy rates ease from earlier levels. Eurostat’s experimental data found that between 2019 and 2023, vacancy rates for software and application developers and analysts fell by 1.5 percentage points, while database and network professionals saw a 1.7-point decline.
That doesn’t mean companies have stopped hiring IT professionals.
It means the technology market is becoming more selective.
Businesses still need software engineers, cybersecurity specialists, cloud professionals, data experts and other digital talent, but employers are becoming more particular about the skills they need.
The hiring race in technology is therefore less about how many people can code and more about who has the experience to solve the problems companies are actually facing.
3. Healthcare Has a Different Problem Entirely
Healthcare is perhaps the clearest example of an industry where demand isn’t simply connected to economic growth.
People are getting older.
Healthcare needs therefore continue to rise, while large parts of the existing workforce are also approaching retirement.
The European Labour Authority describes shortages in health and care as particularly severe and persistent. The sector employs around 25 million people, with shortages affecting doctors, nurses and care workers across European countries.
This is not something an employer can solve by improving a job advertisement.
Training takes years. Qualifications need to be recognised. Working conditions affect whether people stay in the profession, and international recruitment introduces its own complications.
Healthcare is therefore winning the hiring race for a rather uncomfortable reason: Europe needs more workers simply to maintain the level of care its population requires.
4. Hospitality Keeps Posting Vacancies
Accommodation and food services recorded a 3.0% EU vacancy rate in Q1 2026, making it one of the sectors with the highest vacancy rates.
But this is where looking only at vacancy rates can be misleading.
A high vacancy rate does not necessarily mean an industry is experiencing spectacular growth.
It can also mean employers are struggling to keep positions filled.
Hospitality has long faced challenges around working hours, pay, seasonality and working conditions. The European Labour Authority continues to identify cooks among Europe’s widespread shortage occupations.
So hospitality is certainly hiring.
Whether it is “winning” depends on whether we are measuring the number of jobs available or the industry’s ability to retain the people it hires.
Those are very different things.
Also read: Can I Build a 20-Person Engineering Team in Romania Within Six Months?
5. Professional and Scientific Services Are Holding Their Own
Professional, scientific and technical activities recorded a 2.4% vacancy rate in the EU in Q1 2026.
This broad category covers businesses that depend heavily on specialised knowledge, including professional services, scientific work and technical expertise.
It is another area where the nature of the demand matters.
Companies don’t necessarily need hundreds of general workers. They need people with specific qualifications, technical knowledge and experience.
That makes these roles harder to fill when the available workforce does not match what employers are asking for.
And that mismatch is becoming a recurring feature of the European labour market.
The Surprise Is That Transport Is Not Sitting at the Top of the Vacancy Table
Transportation and storage recorded a 1.9% EU vacancy rate in Q1 2026, below construction, technology and hospitality.
That doesn’t mean the sector has stopped needing workers.
The European Labour Authority has highlighted persistent shortages of drivers and mobile plant operators, with demographic change and working conditions contributing to the problem.
This is a useful reminder that vacancy rates alone don’t tell the entire recruitment story.
A sector can have a relatively modest vacancy rate and still have serious difficulty finding particular workers.
Also read: Is IT Recruitment In Europe Better Than Hiring Offshore?
So Who Is Actually Winning?
If we judge by Q1 2026 vacancy rates, the leading industries include:
| Industry | EU vacancy rate |
|---|---|
| Accommodation & food services | 3.0% |
| Construction | 2.8% |
| Information & communication | 2.6% |
| Professional, scientific & technical activities | 2.4% |
| Administrative & support services | 3.1% |
| Transportation & storage | 1.9% |
| Manufacturing | 1.5% |
The administrative and support category deserves a footnote because it includes temporary employment agencies, which pushes its vacancy rate to 3.1%.
But there is another way to look at the market.
The industries facing the most persistent labour shortages include healthcare, construction, engineering, IT and transport. The European Labour Authority’s 2025 analysis found that shortages are increasingly structural rather than simply the result of temporary labour-market conditions.
That is arguably the more useful measure of who is “winning.”
What This Means for Employers
The European hiring market is becoming less useful to companies that think in terms of one giant talent pool.
The worker a construction company needs may be in another country. The software engineer a technology company wants may already be employed. The nurse a hospital needs may require years of training. The hospitality worker an employer hires today may leave before the next season.
Each problem requires a different recruitment strategy.
This is also where cross-border recruitment becomes increasingly relevant. The European Labour Authority found that many occupations are simultaneously in shortage in one country and surplus in another, suggesting there is considerable potential for better matching of workers across borders.
The opportunity is there.
Finding the connection is the difficult part.
The Hiring Race Is Really a Race for the Right Skills
Europe isn’t experiencing one uniform hiring boom.
It has several labour markets moving at different speeds for very different reasons.
Construction needs skilled trades because Europe continues to build and replace an ageing workforce. Healthcare needs people because demographic pressure is increasing demand. Technology needs specialised professionals because digitalisation continues across almost every industry. Hospitality continues recruiting while dealing with retention challenges. Professional and technical services need people whose skills cannot easily be substituted.
That is why the most useful question for an employer isn’t simply “Which industry is hiring the most?”
It is “Which skills are becoming hardest to find, and where are the people who have them?”
Once recruitment is viewed that way, Europe’s hiring market starts to make much more sense.
