Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, publishes today the number of job vacancies in Belgian enterprises in the 4th quarter 2021. The job vacancy rate – the number of job vacancies compared to the total number of jobs in the enterprise – decreases primarily in the sectors ‘Real estate activities’ and ‘Accommodation and food service activities’, while it increases mainly in the sectors ‘Financial and insurance activities’ and ‘Transportation and storage’. The job vacancy rate for temporary positions remains significantly higher than that of permanent positions.
The total number of job vacancies remains stable
In the fourth quarter of 2021, Belgian enterprises offered 196,140 job vacancies compared to 196,227 in the third quarter of 2021.
The job vacancy rate – the number of job vacancies compared to the total number of jobs in the enterprise – also remains stable, from 4.74% to 4.72%.
The number of job vacancies decreased in the Walloon Region (-287 jobs) and in the Flemish Region (-98 jobs), while it increased in the Brussels-Capital Region (+298) compared to the tird quarter of 2021.
With 68% of all job vacancies in Belgium, Flanders remains the region with the largest number of job vacancies, followed by Wallonia with 20% and Brussels with 12%.
The job vacancy rate remains higher in Flanders (5.39%) than in Wallonia (3.75%) and in Brussels (3.71%).
Type of enterprises and type of jobs
There are 4.18 times more job vacancies in large and medium-sized enterprises than in small enterprises. However, the job vacancy rate remains higher in small enterprises (7.06%) than in large and medium-sized enterprises (4.37%).
Although more job vacancies are offered for permanent positions (84.79%), the job vacancy rate is significantly higher for temporary positions (20.70%) than for permanent positions (4.15%).
Breakdown by activity sector (NACE)
More than three quarters (76.1%) of job vacancies can be found in five economic sectors: the non-profit sector, scientific activities and administrative services, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade and construction.
The job vacancy rate mainly decreases in the following sectors: real estate activities (-3.89 percentage points) and accommodation and food service activities (-2.42 points), while it mainly increases in the sectors of financial and insurance activities (+1.1 points) and transportation and storage (+0.62 points). Furthermore, this rate becomes the highest in the sector ‘Information and communication’ (9.0%) and the lowest in the sector ‘Real estate activities’ (1.6%).