Labor market tightness in many advanced economies is continuing a long-term trend that began during the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. From 2010 to 2023, average job vacancies as a share of total labor demand rose by more than two percentage points in the construction, healthcare, and leisure and hospitality sectors, senior partner and McKinsey Global Institute chair Sven Smit and colleagues explain. Healthcare has been the most strained, representing 16.9 percent of all vacancies last year, the highest among all sectors.
Image description:
A dot plot chart compares job vacancy rates across various sectors in 2010 and 2023, averaged across 7 countries. Each sector is represented by a horizontal bar, with a dark blue dot marking the 2010 vacancy rate and a light blue dot for 2023. The length of the bar illustrates the difference between the 2 years. All sectors show higher vacancy rates in 2023, compared with 2010. The leisure and hospitality sector shows the most significant increase, with job vacancy rates rising from around 2.4% in 2010 to more than 4.5% in 2023. In contrast, the government sector shows the smallest change, with rates shifting from around 0.9% to slightly above 1.5% over the same period.
Note: Japan was excluded from this analysis due to lack of available data. Also excluded is the Other services sector. Full year 2023 data for all 7 countries, except Germany, for which employment and vacancy data goes to Q3 2023.
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics; Eurostat; Statistics Canada; UK Office for National Statistics; US Bureau of Labor Statistics; McKinsey Global Institute analysis.
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To read the article, see “Help wanted: Charting the challenge of tight labor markets in advanced economies,” June 26, 2024.