The number of layoffs (also called "involuntary outflow") in Belgium reached its highest level in the past five years last year: more than one in 20 (5.64%) of permanent contracts were involuntarily terminated.
Even during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, this share was lower, at 5.25%.
Wallonia has the highest percentage of layoffs (6.9%), while Brussels remains stable at 6.17%, according to research by HR service provider Securex. For the first time, the share also rises above 5% in Flanders, rising to 5.11%. This increase continues a trend that was already visible in 2023.
"In recent years, companies have had to deal with several major crises. Immediately after the Covid-19 crisis, its impact on employee outflow was less noticeable thanks to protective measures," said Frank Vander Sijpe, Director HR Trends & Insights at Securex.
"Now that these measures have ended, the full effect of the current crisis is becoming increasingly clear. There is a chance that this trend will continue in the short term," he added.
Credit: Belga
The increase is the result of a sharp increase in the number of employees who were dismissed as a result of a company bankruptcy. In 2024, this was the case for 8.6% of dismissed employees, three times as many as the year before (2.85%).
In 2024, the number of bankruptcies reached a record high since 2013, with 11,067 companies declared bankrupt in Belgium. "For the first time since the Covid-19 period, we are seeing that business bankruptcies are leading to a significant increase in the number of dismissals," said Vander Sijpe.
"This is not only affecting small businesses more, but also more and more established companies that already had a strong position on the market," he added. For companies with 0-9 employees, this concerns 17% of the layoffs (compared to 8.95% in 2023). For companies with 10-49 employees, that percentage increased from 1.4% to 8.95%.
The increase is particularly significant among office workers: for them, the percentage of employees who were dismissed due to bankruptcy was 4.8 times higher in 2024 than in 2023 (from 1.72% to 8.2%), while for manual workers it was twice as high (from 4.53% to 9.27%).
General stability
Although the number of layoffs has increased, the general figures of people leaving a company have remained stable since 2022. The total percentage in 2024 was barely higher than in 2023: 17.76% of permanent contracts were terminated in 2024, compared to 17.57% the year before.
The percentage of people leaving voluntarily also saw little change: it amounted to 10.78% in 2024 compared to 10.95% in 2023. While there was an increase in voluntary departures between 2020 and 2022, this has not been the case in the last two years – something that can likely be explained by the fact that people are less inclined to change employers in times of uncertainty.
