Where the jobs are: openings, pay and companies

Openings per resident favour the regional cities

In absolute terms, the capital dominates the market for job vacancies registered in 2025. Vilnius City Municipality accounts for 34,825 positions, well ahead of Kaunas City Municipality with 22,232 positions. Those totals follow the size of the cities, so they say little about how much work is on offer for each resident.

Relative to the number of residents, the order changes completely. Šiauliai City Municipality has the highest ratio at 110.4 positions / 1,000 inh., followed by Palanga City Municipality at 108.8 positions / 1,000 inh. and Klaipėda City Municipality at 89.1 positions / 1,000 inh., three values far above the median. With a national ratio of 57.0 positions / 1,000 inh., the capital Vilnius City Municipality is ranked 19 of 60, close to that national level.

The median municipality stands at 45.7 positions / 1,000 inh., below the national ratio, because the biggest cities pull the national figure upwards. The figure below lists the ten municipalities with the highest ratios.

A high ratio in a small labour market can signal strong demand, but it can also reflect frequent turnover, since the same position may be advertised more than once in a year. The figures count notices, not people hired.

Advertised pay varies far less than demand

Stated pay is much more uniform than the number of openings. The lowest median monthly base salary in vacancy notices, 1,105 €, is found in Kupiškis District Municipality, followed by Lazdijai District Municipality at 1,142 € and Molėtai District Municipality at 1,180 €. At the other end, several municipalities, among them Klaipėda City Municipality, Mažeikiai District Municipality and Visaginas Municipality, show a median of 1,500 €, while the median municipality stands at 1,300 €.

The capital is not where advertised pay is highest. In Vilnius City Municipality the median is 1,340 €, below the levels in the regional cities of Šiauliai City Municipality with 1,477 € and Alytus City Municipality with 1,478 €.

The table alone does not explain this gap. Advertised pay reflects the type of work on offer as much as the place, a point the occupational mix below illustrates.

Filling vacancies: cities against the periphery

Not every notice leads to a hire. The share of notices in which at least one position was filled has a median of 80.5%. The highest share, 97.9%, belongs to Neringa Municipality, and the lowest, 60.2%, to Kupiškis District Municipality. Small municipalities can swing widely on this measure because a few notices make a large difference.

The large cities do well. The share is 92.9% in Vilnius City Municipality, 92.7% in Klaipėda City Municipality and 91.9% in Šiauliai City Municipality, each above the median. The figure below lists the eight municipalities where the share is lowest.

A few municipalities in the south combine thin demand with low pay and weak filling. In Lazdijai District Municipality the vacancy ratio is 22.1 positions / 1,000 inh., the median stated salary 1,142 € and the filled share 64.2%. In Vilkaviškis District Municipality the values are 20.1 positions / 1,000 inh., 1,200 € and 62.8%. All three measures sit below the median in both municipalities.

Company registers follow the big cities

Registered companies tell a different story, because the register counts firms by the place where they are registered, not by where their employees work. The national ratio is 48.8 ‰, far above the median municipality at 27.4 ‰, which shows how strongly the register is concentrated in a few places. Neringa Municipality, with only 4,451 residents, has the highest ratio, 117.8 ‰, and Vilnius City Municipality follows with 93.4 ‰.

Business creation shows a similar pattern. Vilnius City Municipality has the highest rate of companies registered during the year, 9.3 ‰, ahead of Palanga City Municipality with 8.7 ‰. The national rate is 4.7 ‰ and the median municipality stands at only 2.2 ‰.

The age of the register differs from place to place as well. The share of companies registered in the last five years is highest in Pasvalys District Municipality, at 59.0%, and lowest in Visaginas Municipality, at 27.1%, against 41.4% for the country as a whole. The comparison below sets the biggest cities beside the districts around them and two other regional centres.

Which jobs are advertised

The occupational mix of notices differs sharply from place to place, and each group has its own stronghold. The highest share of notices in transport, warehousing and communications, 30.7%, is found in Šiauliai City Municipality. The highest share in production and technical maintenance, 28.4%, is found in Raseiniai District Municipality, and the highest share in construction, 24.6%, in Mažeikiai District Municipality.

Hotels, catering and tourism have the highest share, 33.6%, in Birštonas Municipality, while the median municipality stands at only 6.9%. Such shares can depend on a handful of large employers or on seasonal trades, so they reflect the local economy more than the size of the labour market.

The regional city of Šiauliai City Municipality is a case in point. Transport and warehousing make up 30.7% of its notices, against 9.7% in the median municipality. In 2025 the same city also had 110.4 positions / 1,000 inh., the highest ratio of openings per resident.

These measures describe demand as it appears in notices and in company registers. They do not measure employment, wages actually paid or the number of people at work, and they are best read alongside the other indicators for each municipality, which the links below lead to.