27Received 03.07.2025. Revised 15.12.2025. Accepted 03.03.2026.
Acknowledgements. This article is an output of a research project implemented as part of the Basic Research Program at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE University).
Abstract. In 2023–2024 OECD labor markets were generally recovering in terms of employment and unemployment rates after the previous stagnation during the COVID‑19 pandemic. However, the existence of a significant array of unfilled jobs remains one of the acute economic problems, affecting most OECD countries, as well as a considerable number of industries and occupations. Such imbalances in the labor market can potentially become one of the serious obstacles to sustainable economic development, labor productivity growth, the efficient use of human capital, and the well-being of workers. This article, based on statistical data for OECD countries for 2019–2024, analyzes the dynamics and structure of job vacancy rates depending on the type of economic activity and occupational group, focusing on the major factors of the significant overhang of jobs in modern labor markets. Thus, it was found that in less developed countries, the increase in the number of unfilled vacancies was much slower compared to developed economies. The growth in the job vacancy rates was most significant in sectors of industry and services, and its slight decrease in 2023 did not lead to pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, while in the COVID‑19 pandemic years labor shortage existed mainly in retail and the service sector, which required personal contact with buyers or customers, the increase in the overhang of unfilled jobs during economic recovery was the result of much deeper, often multidirectional, processes, and one of the main obstacles was the sizeable stagnation of real wages. The results of the study can form the basis for developing policies in the Russian labor market, which is also experiencing an acute labor shortage.
Keywords: labor market, OECD, employment, unemployment, economic activity, migration, labor shortage, vacancies, COVID‑19 pandemic, economic growth
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