Slight decrease in the number of job vacancies
Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, publishes today the number of job vacancies in Belgian enterprises in the 2nd quarter 2023. The job vacancy rate – the number of job vacancies compared to the total number of jobs in the enterprise – decreases primarily in the sectors ‘Information and communication’, ‘Other service activities’ and ‘Manufacturing’, while it increases mainly in the sector ‘Accommodation and food service activities’. The job vacancy rate for temporary positions remains significantly higher than that of permanent positions.
The total number of job vacancies decreases by 1.0%
In the second quarter of 2023, Belgian enterprises offered 194,957 job vacancies compared to 196,922 in the first quarter of 2023.
The job vacancy rate – the number of job vacancies compared to the total number of jobs in the enterprise – has also decreased from 4.68% to 4.63%.
The number of job vacancies fell in the 3 regions, with a decrease of 1,351 job vacancies in the Flemish Region, 485 in the Brussels-Capital Region and 128 in the Walloon Region compared to the first quarter 2023.
With 67.36% of all job vacancies in Belgium, the Flemish Region remains the region with the largest number of job vacancies, followed by the Walloon Region with 19.69% and the Brussels-Capital Region with 12.95%.
The job vacancy rate remains higher in the Flemish Region (5.21%) than in the Brussels-Capital Region (4.03%) and in the Walloon Region (3.60%).
Type of enterprises and type of jobs
There are 5.02 times more job vacancies in large and medium-sized enterprises than in small enterprises. However, the job vacancy rate remains higher in small enterprises (6.17%) than in large and medium-sized enterprises (4.41%).
Although more job vacancies are offered for permanent positions (87.23%), the job vacancy rate is significantly higher for temporary positions (18.95%) than for permanent positions (4.17%).
Breakdown by activity sector (NACE)
More than three quarters (77.2%) of job vacancies can be found in five economic sectors: the non-profit sector, sciences and services, manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade and construction.
The job vacancy rate decreases primarily in the sectors ‘Information and communication’ (-1.38 percentage points), ‘Other service activities’ (-0.77 points) and ‘Manufacturing’ (-0.46 points), while it increases mainly in the sector ‘Accommodation and food service activities’ (+1.13 points). Furthermore, this rate remains the highest in the sectors ‘Accommodation and food service activities’ (9.1%) and ‘Information and communication’ (7.0%) and the lowest in the sector ‘Real estate activities’ (2.8%).
Job vacancy rate, number and distribution of job vacancies according to job types and enterprise types in the 2nd quarter 2023
| Jobs | In the 2nd quarter 2023 | Evolution compared to the 1st quarter 2023 | Evolution compared to the 2nd quarter 2022 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of job vacancies (x1,000) | Distribution of job vacancies | Job vacancy rate | Number of job vacancies | Job vacancy rate | Number of job vacancies | Job vacancy rate | |
| Fixed positions | 171 | 87.0% | 4.2% | -0.7% | 0.0% | -7.9% | -0.3% |
| Temporary positions | 26 | 13.0% | 18.9% | -3.1% | 0.0% | -14.4% | -1.7% |
| Enterprise (<10 employees) | 34 | 17.1% | 6.4% | -4.0% | -0.3% | -8.7% | -0.6% |
| Enterprise (>10 employees) | 163 | 82.9% | 4.4% | -0.4% | 0.0% | -8.9% | -0.3% |
| Belgium | 197 | 100,0% | 4.7% | -1.0% | 0.0% | -8.8% | -0.3% |
Number and proportion of job vacancies according to the economic sector and the regions in the 2nd quarter 2023
| Economic sectors (NACE) | Number of job vacancies in the 2nd quarter 2023 (x1.000) | Proportion of job vacancies in the 2nd quarter 2023 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | Belgium % | Brussels-Capital Region | Flemish Region | Walloon Region | Belgium | Brussels-Capital Region | Flemish Region | Walloon Region | |
| Industry (B-E) | 27.6 | 14,2% | 0.8 | 22.3 | 4.5 | 100% | 2.8% | 80.8% | 16.3% |
| Construction (F) | 15.3 | 7,9% | 0.8 | 11.4 | 3.2 | 100% | 5.2% | 74.1% | 20.7% |
| Wholesale and retail trade (G) | 24.6 | 12,6% | 2.0 | 18.6 | 4.0 | 100% | 8.2% | 75.7% | 16.1% |
| Transportation (H) | 13.4 | 6,9% | 2.7 | 8.6 | 2.1 | 100% | 20.5% | 64.2% | 15.3% |
| Accommodation and food service activities (I) | 13.1 | 6,7% | 1.4 | 9.5 | 2.2 | 100% | 11.0% | 72.3% | 16.6% |
| Information and communication (J) | 9.8 | 5,0% | 2.3 | 6.6 | 1.0 | 100% | 23.1% | 67.0% | 9.9% |
| Financial and insurance activities (K) | 3.8 | 1,9% | 1.4 | 2.0 | 0.3 | 100% | 38.0% | 53.0% | 9.0% |
| Real estate activities (L) | 0.7 | 0,4% | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 100% | 27.1% | 57.6% | 15.3% |
| Sciences and services (M-N) | 35.5 | 18,2% | 4.5 | 25.6 | 5.4 | 100% | 12.8% | 72.1% | 15.1% |
| Non-profit (O-Q) | 47.4 | 24,3% | 7.9 | 24.8 | 14.7 | 100% | 16.7% | 52.3% | 31.0% |
| Other services (R-S) | 3.8 | 2,0% | 1.1 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 100% | 29.6% | 42.8% | 27.6% |
| Total (B-S) | 195.0 | 100,0% | 25.3 | 131.3 | 38.4 | 100% | 13.0% | 67.4% | 19.7% |
Quarterly job vacancy survey (JVS)
Purpose and short description
The quarterly job vacancy survey meets the statistical needs of the European Commission as defined in the Regulation (EC) nº 453/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008, the Commission Regulation (EC) nº 1062/2008 of 28 October 2008 and the Commission Regulation (EC) nº 19/2009 of 13 January 2009. Job vacancy statistics provide information on unmet labour demand. Information on job vacancies is used for business cycle analysis and assessing mismatches on the labour market. This quarterly survey is based on a sample of enterprises with at least one employee. Data are collected according to the economic sector and location of the enterprise, as well as the enterprise size class.
Survey population
The survey population consists of enterprises with at least one employee. Activities of households, self-employed and extraterritorial organisations and bodies (such as embassies, consulates, European institutions, WCO, NATO, etc.) are not included.
Since 2014, all enterprises from sections B to S from the NACE rev 2 are analysed.
Main definitions
A job vacancy is defined as a paid post that is newly created, unoccupied, or about to become vacant, for which the employer is taking active steps and is prepared to take further steps to find a suitable candidate from outside the enterprise concerned; and which the employer intends to fill either immediately or within a specific period of time. A vacant post that is only open to internal candidates is not considered as a "job vacancy".
An "occupied post" is a paid post within the organisation to which an employee has been assigned.
The job vacancy rate (JVR) measures the proportion of total posts that are vacant, according to the definition of job vacancy above, expressed as a percentage as follows: 
Data collection method and sample size
The sampling method uses the principle of a rotational panel selected according to the size and economic sector of the employer enterprises, on the basis of their individual quarterly declarations on occupied posts to the National Social Security Office (NSSO). Selected enterprises are surveyed every quarter of the year. After a year, a third of the enterprises from the strata with a drawing probability lower than one third are renewed. Enterprises from the other strata remain in the panel every year. The panel design was retained as it takes into account any evolution in the business world while ensuring consistency across quarters.
Questionaires are sent to enterprises in XBRL format after they have been informed of their selection by mail. The survey form asks the enterprises to provide the number of fixed and temporary occupied posts and job vacancies, in the three regions. The reference date is the date in the middle of the quarter (15 February for the first quarter, 15 May for the second quarter, 16 August for the third quarter and 16 November for the fourth quarter).
The average number of enterprises surveyed each quarter is about 10.000-11.000.
Periodicity
The job vacancy survey is organised every quarter.
Release calendar
Results are published 70 days after the reference period.