Belgian employment rate increases to 71 %

Work & training
Belgian employment rate increases to 71 %

Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, publishes today the main results of the Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2019:

  • 71 % of people aged 20 to 64 are employed. This figure is the highest ever registered in our country. The employment rate has increased by 2 percentage points in one year’s time.
  • The employment rate has sharply increased for both sexes and amounts to 75.1 % for men and to 66.9 % for women.
  • The employment rate increases the most among people aged 55 and over. The percentage of employed people aged 55-64 amounts to 52.3 %.
  • The employment rate is progressing positively in the three regions but the differences among the regions remain significant. In the second quarter of 2019, the employment rate reached 76 % in Flanders, 65.2 % in Wallonia and 61.7 % in Brussels.
  • The unemployment rate of people aged 15 to 64 continues to fall and stands at 5.4 %, i.e. the lowest level since records began in the 1980’s.
  • The unemployment rate for women remains stable at 5 %, while it is dropping to 5.7 % for men.
  • The decrease was the largest for youth unemployment rate, which now stands at 13.6 %.
  • The unemployment rate has decreased in the three regions. The gap between the unemployment rate in Flanders, on the one hand, and that in Brussels and Wallonia, on the other hand, is shrinking. In Flanders, 3.3 % of the labour force is unemployed. This percentage amounts to 6.9 % in Wallonia and to 12.8 % in Brussels.