Monthly figures on the labour market – December 2020
With this series of fast indicative figures, Statbel wants to map the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the labour market.
The main conclusions for December are the following:
- after a sharp decrease the previous month, the employment rate of people aged 20-64 increases again and stands at 69.5 %;
- the unemployment rate of people aged 15-64 decreases from 6.2 % to 5.2 %;
- 38.7 % of people with a job did not work or worked less than usual. Holidays are by far the main reason for this, but temporary unemployment is also a common reason for absence;
- 38.9 % of persons employed sometimes, usually or always work from home. This is the same percentage as in November.
You will find more details here below.
New increase in the employment rate of people aged 20-64
After two consecutive months of rising employment rates in September and October, provisional figures for November show a sharp decrease in the employment rate of people aged 20-64. Provisional figures for December show once again an increase in the employment rate, from 68.2 % in November to 69.5 % in December. The employment rate is 1.4 percentage points below the level registered in December 2019 (chart 1).
Between November and December, the increase in the employment rate is slightly stronger for women (+1.8 percentage points) than for men (+0.9 percentage points). The increase in mainly among younger age groups. However, the employment rate of people aged 55 or over show a decrease.
The employment rate increases between November and December this year in Flanders and Wallonia, but decreases in Brussels. The employment rate of people aged 20-64 in December is estimated at 59.7 % in Brussels, 74.4 % in Flanders and 64.2 % in Wallonia.
ILO unemployment rate amounts to 5.2 % in December
Since July, the ILO unemployment rate[1] of people aged 15-64 is above 6 %. With 6.9 %, the unemployment rate reached in August its highest level since the Coronavirus crisis, before decreasing to 6.2 % in September. Afterwards, the unemployment rate remained rather stable until November. Provisional figures for December show a decrease in the unemployment rate to 5.2 %, which is approximately the same level as in December 2019 (5.3 %).
Between November and December 2020, the unemployment rate decreased in Flanders and Wallonia. In Brussels, Statbel observes an increase in the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate of people aged 15-64 in December is estimated at 14.7 % in Brussels, 2.8 % in Flanders and 6.5 % in Wallonia.
Increase in the economic activity rate
After a sharp decrease in the economic activity rate in November, Statbel observes a slight increase from 67.0 % in November to 67.6 % in December 2020. The economic activity rate or the share of people employed and unemployed in the total population aged 15 to 64 is now 1.8 percentage points below the level registered in December 2019 (chart 3).
38.7 % of people employed did not work or worked less than usual December
Just like the first lockdown, the second lockdown had a clear impact on the hours worked, as the November figures already showed. Then, 27 % of people employed did not work or worked fewer hours than usual. In December, this percentage amounts to 38.7 % of people employed (chart 4). Only in April was this percentage higher with 44.2 %. In addition to the effect of the lockdown, December is also affected by the Christmas period. We see that holidays are much more often the main reason for not working (715,000 persons) or for working less (541,000 persons) than in April. Furthermore, temporary unemployment was mentioned in December by 141,000 persons as main reason for not working and by 75,000 persons for working less than usual. These figures are similar to those of November. In April, the number of persons mentioning temporary unemployment as main reason for not working (575,000 persons) or for working less (281,000 persons) was much higher.
The percentage of people working from home remains stable at 38.9 %
Just like in the first lockdown, homeworking has again been mandatory since November for all people employed whose job allows. Both in November and December, 38.9 % of people employed sometimes or usually worked from home (chart 5). That is approximately the same level as in May. Persons whose regular workplace is in Brussels more often work from home (60.4 %) than those working in Flanders (35.2 %) or in Wallonia (32.4 %). With a percentage of 57.4 %, self-employed people most often work from home. For employees in the public sector and in the private sector, this percentage was 49 % and 30.8 %, respectively.
In December, 39.4 % of people working from home indicate that they did it for the first time during the Covid crisis. 43.9 % of people working from home already did it before, but do it more during the Covid crisis and for 16.7 %, the Covid crisis had no impact on the extent of homeworking.
(B) Break in the results in June 2020. The figures until May 2020 are based on a smaller sample and therefore cannot simply be compared with the figures from June 2020 onwards.
[1] The ILO unemployed are all the people who do not have a job, are actively seeking work and are available to start working within two weeks.