By Krum Garkov
Recent figures show that the job vacancy rate in the euro area rose to 2.2% in the final stages of 2025, with around 2.5 million vacancies across the EU. The pressure facing European employers is clear. Some of the bloc’s strongest economies are among the most affected, with Germany recording 1.7 million vacancies and France more than 250,000. Other countries are also feeling the strain, including the Netherlands, with around 368,000 vacancies, and Austria, with almost 120,000.
This is happening at a time when unemployment in the EU remains historically low. The unemployment rate stood at 5.8% in January this year, with just under 13 million people out of work.
The figures point to a staffing paradox. The issue is not simply a lack of available workers, but a widening mismatch between the skills employers need and those available in the labour market. The European Commission has identified shortages in more than 40 sectors, including healthcare, construction, hospitality, agriculture, transport, logistics, ICT and technical trades. Research has also found that around two in three SMEs in the EU are struggling with staff shortages. At the same time, the EU is losing about one million workers a year to retirement, a trend expected to continue until 2050. By 2100, the EU’s working-age population could fall by more than 50 million compared with 2022 levels.
A more strategic approach to labour mobility
To address the problem, the European Commission’s Action Plan on Labour and Skills Shortages includes measures to upskill European workers, improve job matching and expand legal migration routes. One important development has been the closer alignment of visa policy, migration management and labour market strategy.
For employers, it is encouraging that visa policy is no longer being treated simply as a matter of travel authorisation. It is increasingly becoming part of Europe’s wider labour mobility framework. Tools such as the EU Blue Card, national shortage occupation lists and bilateral agreements are now being used more strategically.
However, skills validation and work readiness have so far remained a missing layer. Reliable skills assessment could become the mechanism that turns legal migration channels into recruitment routes employers can trust.
In this context, the EU Talent Pool, the first EU-wide platform designed to support the recruitment of skilled workers from third countries, is expected to become operational soon. The online platform aims to organise international recruitment more effectively by matching jobseekers from outside the EU with European employers, based on vacancies that correspond to their skills. It could also help facilitate recruitment from countries such as India, which produces thousands of skilled professionals every year in construction, hospitality and manufacturing, precisely the areas where Europe urgently needs workers.
Why implementation matters
As efforts to support legal labour mobility intensify, administrative capacity will be crucial. The effective rollout of the EU Talent Pool and broader labour migration initiatives will require member states to strengthen key early-stage processes, including identity verification, document certification, risk assessment and fraud prevention.
These are functions that many national ministries responsible for employment may not have the capacity to manage, particularly if application volumes rise. The process must begin properly at the front line, by confirming who the applicant is, what skills they actually have, and whether their documents and declarations are reliable. This needs to happen before employers invest time and resources, and before authorities use already limited processing capacity.
External service providers, including those already supporting governments with visa application processing, can play an important role in making labour migration policies work. With their experience in identity verification, they are well placed to support these objectives in several critical ways.
Many already operate global visa application centres and have digital platforms capable of handling large numbers of applicants while safeguarding information in line with EU data protection rules. This ability to absorb fluctuations in demand will become increasingly important as labour mobility expands.
From administration to skills matching
Beyond their administrative role, external service providers can also help connect European employers with skilled workers from third countries. They could support the EU Talent Pool and similar initiatives by carrying out preliminary screening and qualification checks, ensuring that employers are matched with suitable and verified candidates.
This kind of skills management partnership is already being applied in Malta, where the Skills Pass programme is helping address labour shortages in the tourism sector. Candidates from abroad complete online modules to obtain a skills certificate and then book an interview to verify those skills at a visa application centre, alongside the visa application itself.
Separate procedures for skills verification, document checks and visa applications are brought together under one framework. This makes access easier for overseas workers in the hospitality sector and speeds up the process for employers. It also contrasts with cases where employers have expressed frustration that other partnerships have not always resulted in workers being able to move in time.
The programme also provides an important element of quality control. By embedding skills assessment directly into the migration process before the worker arrives, it reduces the risk of recruiting unqualified workers from abroad. This was particularly important in Malta, which had been overwhelmed by unskilled workers after the reopening of the sector following the Covid-19 pandemic triggered a wave of urgent recruitment. The system also places no significant financial burden on the Maltese government, as operating costs are covered through fees paid by candidates.
A role in attracting future talent
External service providers could also help identify the next generation of skilled workers Europe needs by supporting the recruitment of students to the continent. In Austria, for example, the three major technical universities in Vienna, Graz and Leoben have partnered with an external service provider to make it easier for qualified Indian engineering and technology graduates to access advanced postgraduate programmes.
The provider pre-selects and identifies students, assesses them, verifies their identity and helps with the visa application process, making the procedure simpler and faster for universities. Graduates of postgraduate programmes are then entitled to a one-year visa extension in Austria, allowing them to gain work experience and helping employers fill skills gaps.
Europe is taking the right policy steps to tackle long-term labour shortages across the Union. Yet the future of any labour mobility strategy will not be determined by legislation alone. It will also depend on the quality, integrity and scalability of the systems that put it into practice.
By bridging the gap between policy ambition and practical delivery, external service providers can play a vital role in ensuring that Europe is able to attract and integrate the international talent it needs to remain competitive in the decades ahead.
*Former member of the Office of the Prime Minister of Bulgaria and EU Policy Adviser at VFS Global.
