Work & training
Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, publishes today the main results of the Labour Force Survey for the first quarter of 2018:
- 69.3% of people aged 20 to 64 are employed; this percentage among people aged 55 and over is just under 50%.
- The unemployment rate amounts to 6.2% compared to 7.8% in the first quarter of 2017.
- Compared to the first quarter of 2017, the employment and unemployment rates evolve very favourably.
- Positive developments are more pronounced for women than for men: unemployment rate has been lower for women than for men since the third quarter of 2017.
Employment rate:
- 69.3% of people aged 20 to 64 are employed. 69.3% of people aged 20 to 64 were employed in the first quarter of 2018. This represents a slight decline of 0.3 percentage point compared to the fourth quarter of 2017. However, this EU2020 indicator increased strongly (+1.6 percentage point) compared to the first quarter of 2017.
- Employment rate increases faster for women than for men. The female employment rate increased faster than the male employment rate between the first quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018 (chart 1). However, the employment rate of men is still 9 percentage points higher than that of women. In the first quarter of 2018, 73.8% of men aged 20 to 64 work against 64.8% of their female counterparts.
- About half of the people aged 55 and over are in employment. While the employment rate is increasing in all age groups, the increase is strongest for the people aged between 55 and 64 year (chart 2). In the first quarter of 2018, 49.6% of people aged 55 and over were employed, compared to 46.2% a year earlier.
- Employment rate is on the increase in the three regions. The employment rate has evolved positively in the regions between the first quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018 (chart 3). In the first quarter of 2018, the employment rate of people aged 20 to 64 amounts to 61.5% in Brussels, 73.9% in Flanders and 63.6% in Wallonia.
Chart 1: Employment rate of people aged 20-64 according to sex
Chart 2: Employment rate of people aged 20-64 according to age group
Chart 3: Employment rate of people aged 20-64 according to region
Unemployment rate:
- Strong decline of the unemployment rate. Unemployment rate has also evolved positively. The unemployment rate according to the definitions of the International Labour Office amounted to 6.2% in the first quarter of 2018 (see definitions under ‘Metadata’). This represents a slight decline compared to the fourth quarter of 2017 when unemployment rate amounted to 6.4%. Compared to the first quarter of last year, unemployment rate decreases by 1.6 percentage point (chart 2): from 7.8% to 6.2%.
- Lower unemployment rate for women than for men. In the first quarter of 2017, unemployment rate was still higher for women (8%) than for men (7.6%). The situation has been reversed since the third quarter of 2017 due to the faster decline in the female unemployment rate than in the male unemployment rate (chart 4). In the first quarter of 2018, unemployment rate was 5.8% for women and 6.5% for men.
- Strong decrease in unemployment rate for young people and people aged 50 and over. Unemployment rate decreases in all age groups, but the decline is the strongest for young people and people aged 50 and over (chart 5). Unemployment rate was 16.9% for people aged 15 to 24, 5.8% for people aged 25 to 49 and 4.3% for people aged 50 and over in the first quarter of 2018.
- Unemployment rate decreases in the three regions. Although unemployment rate is evolving positively in all three regions, large differences remain: in Flanders 3.6% of the labour force is unemployed, compared to 8.9% in Wallonia and 13.3% in Brussels (chart 6).
Chart 4: Unemployment rate of people aged 15-64 according to sex
Chart 5: Unemployment rate of people aged 15-64 according to age group
Chart 6: Unemployment rate of people aged 15-64 according to region
