CDP Center experts have prepared a brief overview of tendencies in Professional, scientific, and technical activities industry.

On average for all industries in 20 Euro area countries over the last decade (since 2014 to 2023), the number of vacancies increased by 1.5 percentage points to 2.9%. Instead in the Professional, scientific and technical activities industry, the number of vacancies on average across countries increased by 2 percentage points to 3.9% in 2023.

The largest number of vacancies in the Professional, scientific and technical activities industry in 2023 were in Belgium (7,5%), in Austria (6,6%) and Luxembourg (6,1%).

Research and development - the intellectual core of the Professional, scientific, and technical activities industry is also expanding.

On average for Euro aria countries, the Research and development personnel indicator (the number of people employed in the sector out of the total economically active population) in 2022 amounted to 1.6% (+0.36 percentage points relative to 2013). Employment in R&D increased from 1.9 million people in 2013 to 2.6 million people in 2022. In fact, employment in jobs related to Research and development increased by more than a third compared to employment in 2013.

Positive trend: number of vacancies in the science sector is growing: 2014-2023.

The increase in the number of vacancies in the economies of countries and cities indicates economic growth. And if we analyze activity in the labor market on industry level, we can draw conclusions about the qualitative parameters of economic growth. According to Eurostat,  a 'job vacancy' is a paid post that is newly created, unoccupied, or about to become vacant.

European countries are historically the leading scientific center of the world. The increase in vacancies in the Professional, scientific and technical activities sector means that the sector is developing dynamically. The job vacancy rate (JVR) has increased, it is considered as the number of job vacancies expresses as a percentage of the sum of the number of occupied posts and the number of job vacancies

On average for all industries in 20 Euro area countries over the last decade (since 2014 to 2023), the number of vacancies increased by 1.5 percentage points to 2.9%. Instead in the Professional, scientific and technical activities industry, the number of vacancies on average across countries increased by 2 percentage points to 3.9% in 2023.

All leading countries (by the number of vacancies in the Professional, scientific and technical activities industry also demonstrate a significant increase in vacant positions over the past decade (2014-2023).

Research and development (intellectual core of the Professional, scientific, and technical activities) is activity expanding.

We analyzed the data for European countries over the last decade, we see that the increase in the number of vacancies in the Professional, scientific and technical activities industry occurs against the backdrop of an increase in both employment and costs in the field of Research and development.

On average for Euro aria countries, the Research and development personnel indicator (the number of people employed in the sector out of the total economically active population) in 2022 amounted to 1.6% (+0.36 percentage points relative to 2013). If employment growth in Research and development  activity is assessed in the number of jobs, than employment increased from 1.9 million people in 2013 to 2.6 million people in 2022. In fact, employment in jobs related to Research and development increased by more than one third (+33.2%) compared to employment in 2013.

All countries included in the TOP 10 in terms of growth in the number of R&D personnel and researchers significantly exceeded the average European growth rates. At the same time, Poland and Belgium, due to a record increase in the number of R&D personnel and researchers, entered the TOP 10 countries in terms of the number of R&D personnel and researchers in 2022.

All countries included in the TOP 10 in terms of the number of personnel related to R&D personnel and researchers, employment within this specialization continues to grow steadily.

At the same time, over the last decade, costs in this type of activity have also increased - “Research and development expenditure” in 2022, on average for  Evro area countries, costs per year amounted to 2.27% of GDP, they increased by 0.16 percentage points compared to 2013 of the year.

Human resources

The basis of the Professional, scientific and technical activities industry sector is, of course, human resources, and here cities play a vital role since historically education and science were concentrated in cities. On average, at the level of  Euro area countries, the average percentage of the population that sociologists attribute to Human resources in science and technology is about 48% as a share of the active population in the age group 15-74. This group of people includes those who have successfully completed an education at the third level or are employed in science and technology. So, the development of higher education and the concentration of high-tech businesses play a key role here.

In agglomerations of European cities such as Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Budapest, Prague, Luxembourg, Brussels, the indicator is much higher than the Eurozone average (on average 20% higher than the European average).

Among the leaders are both agglomerations with already highly developed high-tech businesses - Berlin, Paris, Luxembourg, Brussels, and agglomerations in which the development potential has not yet been fully realized - Stockholm, Warsaw, Budapest, Prague. We believe than in next decade in these cities high-tech business, will develop rapidly.