Job vacancy figures in Belgium in the first quarter 2019
In the first quarter of 2019, Belgian enterprises offered 147,700 job vacancies compared to 141,700 in the fourth quarter of 2018. This is what emerged from the new figures of Statbel, the Belgian statistical office. The job vacancy rate – the number of job vacancies compared to the total number of jobs in the enterprise – has also slightly increased from 3.44 % to 3.65 %.
There was an increase in the three regions, Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia, with respectively 900, 3,000 and 2,000 job vacancies more compared to the fourth quarter of 2018. The job vacancy rate is higher in Flanders (4 %) and in Brussels (3.56 %) than in Wallonia (2.8 %).
Most of the job vacancies were offered by large and medium-sized enterprises (82.1 % of the total). The job vacancy rate for these enterprises stands at 3.41 %. This figure is substantially lower than the job vacancy rate of 5.19 % in enterprises with less than 10 employees.
More than half of the job vacancies (77.1 %) can be found in five economic sectors:
- Non-profit (24.3 % of the total): 35,900 job vacancies
- Scientific activities and administrative services (19.6 %): 29,000 job vacancies
- Wholesale and retail trade (12.4 %): 18,300 job vacancies
- Industry (12.3 %): 18,200 job vacancies
- Construction (8.5 %): 12,600 job vacancies
The following economic sectors have registered the highest job vacancy rate:
- Information and communication (ICT): 7.03 %
- Construction: 5.79 %
- Scientific activities and administrative services: 5.55 %
- Accommodation and food service activities: 5.22 %
- Other service activities: 4.13 %
- Transportation: 3.87 %
- Real estate activities: 3.62 %
- Wholesale and retail trade: 3.40 %
- Industry: 3.19 %
The job vacancy rate has increased (fourth quarter of 2018 versus first quarter of 2019) particularly in the following sectors: other service activities (+1.61 percentage point), construction (+0.90 percentage point) and non-profit (+0.55 percentage point). The job vacancy rate has decreased in the following sectors: real estate activities (-1.63 percentage point), accommodation and food service activities (-1.10 percentage point) and wholesale and retail trade (-0.44 percentage point).