Recent figures from the National Employment Office show that over 40,000 Belgian workers have registered for temporary unemployment, a sharp increase compared to a fortnight ago when the figure stood at 10,000.
Due to the ongoing energy crisis, the Federal Government has allowed companies to put staff on technical unemployment if energy costs represented at least 3% of their production value in 2021 and their energy bills have at least doubled in the last year.
As a consequence, employees would then receive benefits from the National Employment Office equal to 70% of their wages (capped at €3,075.04 gross per month). Employers have to pay an additional €6.10 per day of unemployment.
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This has led to 784 companies putting 41,226 workers on temporary unemployment – over four times more than two weeks ago –prompting labour economist Stijn Baert to that "cutting back or shutting down production is very drastic". He added that "companies should not take such a decision lightly."
While the National Employment Office noted that this is only a modest increase compared to the pandemic (when 100,000 were furloughed in Belgium) for Baert this "is the indicator that the economy is stalling and ultimately that a recession is imminent," repeating the view of 600 Flemish companies.
