The unemployment rate goes down to 6.1 % in the second quarter of 2018

Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, publishes today the main results of the Labour Force Survey for the second quarter of 2018:

• 69 % of people aged 20 to 64 are employed. For people older than 55, the rate is just below 50 %.
• The unemployment rate keeps going down and stands at 6.1 % in the second quarter of 2018.
• Since the beginning of 2017, the year in which the survey was thoroughly reformed, the employment and unemployment rates have continued to evolve favourably at the level of the whole country.
• However, compared to the previous quarter only, the positive evolutions are less marked. In Flanders, both the employment rate and the unemployment rate show slightly positive trends, but in Wallonia, we can see a slight decrease of the employment rate combined with a slight increase of the unemployment rate. In Brussels, both the unemployment and employment rates are slightly decreasing.