Job vacancy figures in Belgium in the third quarter 2018
Belgian enterprises offered 149,180 job vacancies in the third quarter of 2018, compared to 143,470 in the second quarter of 2018, according to 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 3.53 % to 3.65 %.
There was a new increase in Flanders, with 5,230 more job vacancies compared to the second quarter of 2018; while the evolution in Brussels and in Wallonia remains almost unchanged compared to the second quarter of 2018. The job vacancy rate is higher in Flanders (4.09 %) and in Brussels (+3.33 %) than in Wallonia (2.80 %).
Most of the job vacancies were offered by large and medium-sized enterprises (78.7 % of the total). The job vacancy rate for these enterprises stands at 3.33 %. This figure is substantially lower than the job vacancy rate of 5.69 % in enterprises with less than 10 employees.
More than half of the job vacancies (78.3 %) can be found in five economic sectors:
- Non-profit (21.9 %): 32,600 job vacancies
- Scientific activities and administrative services (16.7 % of the total): 24,850 job vacancies
- Wholesale and retail trade (16.1 %): 24,040 job vacancies
- Industry (12.6 %): 18,820 job vacancies
- Construction (11.1 %): 16,530 job vacancies
The following economic sectors have registered the highest job vacancy rate:
- Construction: 7.23 %
- Information and communication (ICT): 6.60 %
- Scientific activities and administrative services: 4.89 %
- Transportation: 4.51 %
- Wholesale and retail trade: 4.33 %
- Accommodation and food service activities: 4.28 %
The increases of the job vacancy rate (second versus third quarter 2018) were the sharpest in the following sectors: construction (+1.18 percentage point), wholesale and retail trade (+0.61 percentage point), transportation (+0.53 percentage point) and the non-profit sector (+0.47 percentage point). The job vacancy rate has decreased in the following sectors: real estate activities (-2.43 percentage points), accommodation and food service activities (-2.20 percentage points), scientific activities and administrative services (-0.67 percentage point) and information and communication (-0.57 percentage point).