PURPOSE: to establish a legal basis for the collection of quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies.
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EC) No 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies.
CONTENT: this Regulation lays down the requirements for the regular quarterly production of statistics on Community job vacancies. Each Member State shall submit to the Commission (Eurostat) data on job vacancies at least for business units with one employee or more. The data shall cover all economic activities defined by the common classification system for economic activities in the Community (NACE) in force, except for the activities of households as employers and the activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies. Covering agriculture, forestry and fishing activities, as defined by the NACE in force, shall be optional. Member States that wish to provide data for those sectors shall do so in accordance with this Regulation. Owing to the growing importance of personal care services (residential care activities and social work activities without accommodation) for job creation, Member States are also requested to transmit, on an optional basis, data on job vacancies for such services. The data shall be broken down by economic activity in accordance with the NACE in force at section level.
Covering public administration and defence, compulsory social security, education, human health and social work activities, arts, entertainments and recreation and activities of membership organisations, repair of computers and personal and household goods and other personal service activities, as defined by the NACE in force, within the scope of this Regulation, and of units with fewer than 10 employees, shall be determined taking into account the feasibility studies.
Reference dates and technical specifications: Member States shall compile the quarterly data with reference to specific reference dates, which shall be determined in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny. They shall also provide data on occupied posts in order to standardise job vacancy data for comparative purposes. They shall be required to apply seasonal adjustment procedures to the quarterly job vacancy data.
Data transmission: Member States shall transmit the data and metadata to the Commission (Eurostat) in a format and within transmission deadlines, which shall be determined in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny. The date of the first reference quarter shall also be determined in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny. Any revision of quarterly data for previous quarters shall be transmitted at the same time.
Member States shall also transmit back data for at least the four quarters preceding the quarter for which data is to be provided on the first data delivery. The totals shall be delivered no later than on the date of the first data transmission, and the breakdowns no more than one year thereafter. Where necessary, back data may be based on ‘best estimates’.
Quality assessment: the following quality assessment dimensions shall apply to the data transmitted:
Feasibility studies: the Commission (Eurostat) shall set out the appropriate framework for the establishment of a series of feasibility studies. Those studies shall be undertaken by those Member States that have difficulties in providing data for: (a) units with fewer than 10 employees; and/or (b) the following activities: (i) public administration and defence; compulsory social security; (ii) education; (iii) human health and social work activities; (iv) arts, entertainments and recreation; and (v) activities of membership organisations, repair of computers and personal and household goods and other personal service activities.
Member States undertaking feasibility studies shall each submit a report on the results of those studies within 12 months of the entry into force of the Commission implementing measures.
Financing: for the first 3 years of data collection Member States may receive a financial contribution from the Community towards the cost of the work involved. The amount of the appropriations allocated annually for the financial contribution shall be fixed as part of the annual budgetary procedures. The budget authority shall grant the appropriations available for each year. Further funding may be considered for implementation work with respect to the measures adopted further to the results of the feasibility studies.
Implementation: by 24 June 2010 and every 3 years thereafter, the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of this Regulation. That report shall assess the quality of the statistics provided by Member States as well as the quality of European aggregates and shall identify potential areas for improvement. Preferably within a year of the publication of the 3-yearly report referred to in the first paragraph, Member States shall set out how they intend to address the potential areas for improvement identified in the Commission report. At the same time, Member States shall report on the implementation status of previous recommendations.
The statistics provided by the Member States and an analysis thereof shall be published on the Commission (Eurostat) Internet site on a quarterly basis. The Commission (Eurostat) shall ensure that as many European citizens as possible have access to the statistics and analyses, in particular through the EURES portal.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 24/06/2008.