Job Vacancy Survey: Q1/2026
The NACE classification system, the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, has been updated to NACE Rev. 2.1. Further information on this reclassification is available in the press information notice published on 28 April 2026. This news release presents data compiled according to NACE Rev. 2.1 and covers Q1 2025, Q4 2025, and Q1 2026. Due to the change in classification, alongside the ongoing revision of the historical series, the figures presented in this release are not directly comparable with those published in previous Job Vacancy Survey releases.
More information is available in methodological notes 4 and 5. A complete revised time series based on NACE Rev. 2.1 is scheduled to be published with the Job Vacancy Survey: Q2 2026 news release on 15 September 2026. This will ensure longitudinal coherence and facilitate robust comparisons over time.
More information is available in methodological notes 4 and 5. A complete revised time series based on NACE Rev. 2.1 is scheduled to be published with the Job Vacancy Survey: Q2 2026 news release on 15 September 2026. This will ensure longitudinal coherence and facilitate robust comparisons over time.
- There were a total of 10,022 vacancies in Q1 of 2026.
- The wholesale and retail trade, transportation and storage, accommodation and food services activities along with the professional, scientific, technical, administration and support service activities, generated more than half of all vacancies during the first quarter of 2026.
- Small enterprises with 1–49 employees accounted for 53.4 per cent of all vacancies, while those employing 250 or more employees generated 16.8 per cent.
- The private sector represented 96.5 per cent of all vacant positions, with the public sector accounting for the rest.
Job Vacancy Survey: Q1/2026
Job Vacancy Survey: Q1/2026
The NACE classification system, the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, has been updated to NACE Rev. 2.1. Further information on this reclassification is available in the press information notice published on 28 April 2026. This news release presents data compiled according to NACE Rev. 2.1 and covers Q1 2025, Q4 2025, and Q1 2026. Due to the change in classification, alongside the ongoing revision of the historical series, the figures presented in this release are not directly comparable with those published in previous Job Vacancy Survey releases.
More information is available in methodological notes 4 and 5. A complete revised time series based on NACE Rev. 2.1 is scheduled to be published with the Job Vacancy Survey: Q2 2026 news release on 15 September 2026. This will ensure longitudinal coherence and facilitate robust comparisons over time.
More information is available in methodological notes 4 and 5. A complete revised time series based on NACE Rev. 2.1 is scheduled to be published with the Job Vacancy Survey: Q2 2026 news release on 15 September 2026. This will ensure longitudinal coherence and facilitate robust comparisons over time.
This news release presents the findings of the Job Vacancy Survey (JVS), a quarterly enterprise-based enquiry that provides insights into the demand for labour by measuring the number of vacancies and occupied posts.
Job Vacancies
In the first quarter of 2026, there were a total of 10,022 vacancies within enterprises employing one or more employees, registering an increase of 13.4 per cent over the same period in 2025 (Chart 1, Table 1).
The wholesale and retail trade, transportation and storage, accommodation and food service activities, together with the professional, scientific and technical activities, and administrative and support service activities, accounted for more than 60 per cent of all vacancies issued during Q1 2026 by enterprises in the target group. On the other hand, the real estate activities sector recorded the lowest number of job vacancies, standing at 1.6 per cent of the total number of job vacancies during the same period (Chart 2, Table 1).
When compared to the same quarter in 2025, the largest increase in job vacancies was recorded in the wholesale and retail trade, transportation and storage, and accommodation and food service activities sector. Vacancies in this sector rose by 688, reaching a total of 3,143. The professional, scientific, technical, administrative, and support service activities sector recorded the second-highest year-on-year increase, with 512 more new vacancies. In contrast, the public administration, defence, education, human health, and social work activities sector experienced the largest decline in job vacancies when compared to the first quarter of 2025, with the number of vacancies falling by 341 (Table 1).
The distribution of job vacancies by enterprise size reveals an inverse relationship between enterprise size and vacancy levels. Small enterprises (1–49 employees) accounted for more than half of all vacancies recorded in the first quarter of 2026, whereas large enterprises employing 250 employees or more contributed 16.8 per cent to the total share of vacancies (Chart 3, Table 2).
In the private sector, the number of job vacancies increased by 1,281 between the first quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, reaching a total of 9,676 vacancies. In contrast, the public sector recorded 346 vacancies during the same period (Table 3). As illustrated in Chart 4, the private sector continued to dominate the job vacancy market, accounting for 96.5 per cent of all vacancies in the first quarter of 2026, while the public sector represented the remaining 3.5 per cent.
Job Vacancy Rate
During the first quarter of 2026, the job vacancy rate in Malta stood at 3.3 per cent, decreasing by 0.1 percentage points compared to the preceding quarter and increasing by 0.3 percentage points when compared to the corresponding quarter of 2025 (Table 4). Among the economic activities, construction recorded the highest job vacancy rate at 5.3 per cent, while public administration, defence, education, human health, and social work activities registered the lowest rate at 0.9 per cent (Table 4).
Small enterprises, with 1 to 49 employees, showed a higher job vacancy rate of 5.1 per cent, suggesting a greater demand for labour in this segment. Large enterprises, comprising 250 or more employees, exhibited a lower rate of job vacancies at 1.4 per cent (Table 5).
The private sector registered a job vacancy rate of 4.0 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, while the public sector recorded a rate of 0.6 per cent during the same period (Table 6).
Tables
Tables
The NACE classification system, the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, has been updated to NACE Rev. 2.1. Further information on this reclassification is available in the press information notice published on 28 April 2026. This news release presents data compiled according to NACE Rev. 2.1 and covers Q1 2025, Q4 2025, and Q1 2026. Due to the change in classification, alongside the ongoing revision of the historical series, the figures presented in this release are not directly comparable with those published in previous Job Vacancy Survey releases.
More information is available in methodological notes 4 and 5. A complete revised time series based on NACE Rev. 2.1 is scheduled to be published with the Job Vacancy Survey: Q2 2026 news release on 15 September 2026. This will ensure longitudinal coherence and facilitate robust comparisons over time.
More information is available in methodological notes 4 and 5. A complete revised time series based on NACE Rev. 2.1 is scheduled to be published with the Job Vacancy Survey: Q2 2026 news release on 15 September 2026. This will ensure longitudinal coherence and facilitate robust comparisons over time.
Methodological Notes
1. The Job Vacancy Survey (JVS) is a quarterly enterprise survey carried out with over 3,200 entities employing one or more employees. Administrative sources are used to compile information relating to the public sector.
2. The objective of this survey, as laid down in the regulation (EC) No. 453/2008, is to provide information on the demand for labour at a reference date across units employing 1 or more employees and engaged in NACE sections B-T. The economic activity is classified according to NACE Rev. 2.1 (Nomenclature Statistique des Activités Économiques dans la Communauté Européenne).
3. Definitions:
● A job vacancy is defined as a paid post that is newly created, unoccupied, or about to become vacant, for which the employer is taking active steps and is prepared to take further steps to find a suitable candidate from outside the enterprise concerned, and which the employer intends to fill either immediately or within a specific period of time.
● Active steps to find a suitable candidate include:
notifying the job vacancy to the public employment services;
contacting a private employment agency;
advertising the vacancy in the media, for example, internet, newspapers and magazines;
advertising the vacancy on a public notice board;
approaching, interviewing or selecting possible candidates/potential recruits directly;
approaching employees and/or personal contacts;
using internships.
● The term ‘within a specific period of time‘ refers to the maximum time the vacancy is open and intended to be filled. When the period is unlimited, all vacancies for which active steps are ongoing after the reference date shall be reported.
● An occupied post means a paid post within the organisation to which an employee has been assigned. This value excludes all board members, self-employed owners, directors, partners and managers who are solely paid by way of profits, persons on unpaid leave, posts unoccupied due to long-term absences (e.g., parental leave or long-term sickness) together with employees of temporary employment agencies, outside contractors or consultants, and voluntary workers.
● The Job Vacancy Rate (JVR) is calculated using this formula:
● The Job Vacancy Survey takes a snapshot of the number of job vacancies and occupied posts on a specific day, known as the reference date. For 2017, the reference date was the 30th day of the end-of-quarter month (i.e., March, June, September, and December). As from 2018, the reference date was the 15th day of the end-of-quarter month (i.e., March, June, September, and December). Starting from the first quarter of 2024, the reference date has been changed to the 28th day of the middle quarter month (i.e., February, May, August, and November).
4. The NACE classification system, the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, has been updated to NACE Rev. 2.1. Further information on this reclassification is available through this link: NACE Rev 2.1.
This news release presents data compiled according to this new framework, which presently covers only Q1 2025 and Q4 2025, and Q1 2026. Work on the revision of historical time series using the updated classification system is ongoing and the revised series will be published on 15 September 2026 when data on job vacancies for Q2 2026 will be issued.
This revision includes the reclassification of economic activities from NACE Rev 2 to NACE Rev 2.1, together with an update of the weights used to gross up the survey results based on the most recent target population estimates. Users are advised not to compare the figures presented in this release with those published in previous releases, as these methodological changes may affect comparability. The data presented in this release are subject to change.
Job vacancy statistics for Malta are also published by Eurostat in table jvs_q_r21 of its online database. At the time of publication, although this table is labelled according to NACE Rev. 2.1, it does not yet contain the fully revised series for Malta. Until Member States provide their revised time series, Eurostat have reclassified the data of each country using the figures they had been provided in NACE Rev 2. In view of this, users should exercise caution when using job vacancy statistics from this source, as the data may not fully reflect the new classification structure.
5. The data is classified by economic activity according to the NACE (Nomenclature Statistique des Activités Économiques dans la Communauté Européenne) classification of economic activities in the European Union. The data is presented in accordance with NACE Revision 2 Update 1 (NACE Rev. 2.1), reflecting the latest updates to the classification system.
The main changes in the classification at NACE section level introduced by NACE Rev. 2.1, compared with NACE Rev. 2, include:
a. Section J of NACE Rev. 2 has been split into two sections: Section J, ‘Publishing, broadcasting, and content production and distribution activities’ and Section K ‘Telecommunication, computer programming, consulting, computing infrastructure and other information service activities’. As a result, all the subsequent sections in NACE Rev. 2.1 shifted up one letter.
b. Group 41.1 ‘Development of building projects’ has been removed from section F. Its sole class, 41.10, has been reclassified under class 68.12 within section M (formerly section L).
c. Division 45 ‘Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles’ has been discontinued from section G. The wholesale and retail activities of motor vehicles and motorcycles have been allocated to division 46 and 47 respectively, while the activities of maintenance and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles were moved to section T (formerly section S).
d. The classification of real estate rental activities has been refined: rentals of own or leased real estate for periods of less than one year are now classified under Division 55 (Section I), whereas rentals for one year or longer remain under Division 68 (Section M – formerly section L).
More information on the reclassification can be found in the relevant Press Information Notice and in the News article by Eurostat.
6. More information relating to this news release may be accessed at:
Sources and Methods
Statistical Concepts
Metadata
NACE Rev. 2.1 Classification
7. References to this news release are to be cited appropriately. For guidance on access and re-use of data please visit our dedicated webpage.
8. Further information on the regulation (EC) No. 453/2008 can be accessed here.
9. A detailed news release calendar is available online.
10. For further assistance send your request through our online request form.
