The influence of metal vacancies on the electronic structure of zirconium nitride is studied by means of the KKR-CPA method. Besides lowering the Fermi energy, the vacancies do not change profoundly the density of states. The contribution of the vacancy subcell to the density of states is analysed in terms of the resonance condition for virtual bound states. In particular it is found that contrary to the case of vacancies on the nonmetal sublattice, where a sharp a_1g-like virtual bound state was found, for metal vacancies there is only a somewhat weak e_g-like virtual bound state, but no t_2g-like peak. In the case of vacancies on both sublattices, the a_1g-like virtual bound state is present, but the e_g-like peak vanishes almost completely.