In the fourth quarter of 2019, Belgian enterprises offered 139,420 job vacancies compared to 140,950 in the third quarter of 2019. The job vacancy rate – the number of job vacancies compared to the total number of jobs in the enterprise – has slightly decreased from 3.44 % to 3.39 %.
Flanders saw its number of job vacancies increase by 778, while Brussels and Wallonia registered a decline, with respectively -1,236 and -1,070 fewer job vacancies compared to the third quarter of 2019.
With 69 % of all Belgian job vacancies, Flanders remains the region with the most job vacancies in the country, followed by Wallonia with 19 % and Brussels with 12 %.
The job vacancy rate is logically higher in Flanders (3.85 %) and in Brussels (2.90 %) than in Wallonia (2.56 %).
Type of enterprises and type of jobs
Large and medium-sized enterprises offer 3.57 times more job vacancies than small enterprises. However, the job vacancy rate remains higher in small enterprises (5.39 %) than in large enterprises (3.07 %).
Although more permanent job vacancies are offered (84 %), the job vacancy rate is significantly higher for temporary positions (17 %) than for permanent positions (3 %).
Breakdown by activity sectors (NACE)
More than three quarters of the job vacancies (76.2 %) can be found in five economic sectors: the non-profit sector, the sector of scientific activities and administrative services, of industry, of trade and of construction.
The job vacancy rate mainly decreases in the following sectors: other service activities (-0.50 percentage point) and information and communication (-0.46 percentage point), while it mainly increases in the sectors of accommodation and food service activities (+0.93 percentage point) and of scientific activities and administrative services (+0.61 percentage point).