Quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies

2007/0033(COD)

Opinion of the European Central Bank on a proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and Council on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies.

The ECB welcomes the proposed regulation and considers that the proposed regulation already reflects a balanced compromise between user requirements and statistical simplification needs which has been carefully assessed to limit the reporting burden. The ECB strongly supports the implementation of the proposed regulation and invites the Commission and the Member States to give priority to the timely adoption of the required implementing Commission regulation.

The ECB emphasises that the proposed breakdown at section level of all economic activities defined by the common classification system in the Community (NACE), including the services sector, is an important aspect of the proposed regulation, given the increasing role of services as a percentage of the total economy. The proposed breakdown is, moreover, important for explaining changes in the overall number of job vacancies. The successful compilation and subsequent provision of data resulting from the proposed feasibility studies, as well as from the feasibility studies on the coverage of units with fewer than 10 employees, are considered important steps to further enhance the quality of the data.

The availability of an appropriate set of back data is crucial, due to the importance for analytical purposes of the ability to assess the evolution of job vacancies over time. However, the ECB acknowledges the burden that would be imposed on reporting agents if required to provide a full set of back data, and hence accepts the limited transmission requirement set out in Article 6 of the proposed regulation, while encouraging estimates over a longer period of time where feasible.

On the issue of the improved quality of data necessary for reliable euro area aggregates, a high degree of comparability of the national contributions used to calculate the euro area aggregates is a key aspect of the overall quality assessment. That being the case, the quality criteria to be defined under the implementing procedures in Article 7 of the proposed regulation might usefully include a periodic assessment of the impact of any non-comparable aspects of the national contributions.