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Job Vacancy Concepts and Definitions
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Concepts and Definitions

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Job Vacancy for a quarter refers to the number of unfilled posts at the end of the quarter for which an establishment is actively recruiting employees from outside the establishment. They exclude:
   imas    Positions for which the employees have been appointed but not yet
         commenced duty; or 
   imas    Positions open only to internal transfers or promotions.
Recruitment action to fill a post includes advertising in newspapers, posting notices on Internet (e.g. online job banks), making “word-of-mouth announcements”, soliciting employees through employment agencies or job fairs, contacting or interviewing registered job applicants.

 

Job Vacancy Rate for a quarter is defined as the total number of job vacancies divided by the total demand for manpower at the end of the quarter.
 
The total demand for manpower is defined as the sum of the number of employees and job vacancies at the end of the quarter. The annual figures are the simple averages of the quarterly figures. 



Job Vacancy to Unemployed Ratio is the ratio of the estimates of the total number of job vacancies for the whole economy to the total number of unemployed persons. The job vacancies for the whole economy is estimated based on the assumption that private sector establishments with less than 25 employees have the same vacancy rate as private establishments with 25-49 employees. Estimates on the total number of unemployed persons are obtained from the Labour Force Survey.