While staying in a job is still easy in Belgium, it seems more difficult for the unemployed to find work now than just after the coronavirus crisis, new figures from the Belgian Statistical Office, Statbel, show.
Between the first quarters of 2021 and 2022, 35.2% of the unemployed found jobs. However, only 31.1% did so between the second quarters of 2021 and 2022, Statbel reported on Wednesday.
“This is a serious setback compared to previous quarters: it now seems more difficult for the unemployed to find work than just after the coronavirus crisis”, Statbel commented.
Moreover, while 35.4% of people unemployed in the first quarter of 2021 were still unemployed after a year, that figure has now risen to 42.2%.
This phenomenon particularly affects men and people with an average level of education.
More than a quarter (26.7%) of the long-term unemployed have become inactive and are therefore no longer looking for work or available to start work within two weeks.
Out of 315,000 unemployed, 133,000 were still jobless, 98,000 were at work and 84,000 were inactive one year later.
Statbel also observes strong regional disparities: 30.9% of the Flemish unemployed in the second quarter of 2021 were still unemployed a year later. The corresponding figures for Brussels and Wallonia are 52% and 48.2% respectively.
