April marked the sixth month in a row that Flanders has seen a rise in unemployment, according to figures from the Flemish Service for Employment and Vocational Training (VDAB), which registered 7% more job seekers without work compared to April 2022.
As of 30 April 2023, 273,051 citizens were registered with the VDAB. Job seekers without work made up 71% of those registered, with the sharpest increase among 25-year-olds (+17%).
Whilst hardly different from the figure in March 2023, the job seeker rate, which is the ratio of the number of unemployed job seekers living in Flanders compared to the Flemish working population, was 6.1% – a 7% increase compared to April 2022.
The unemployment rate registered by the VDAB in Flanders has been on the rise since November 2022, a six-month continued increase.
The report comes on the heels of Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon's proud speech about how Flanders is rising above its regional neighbours in employment figures, without acknowledging the fact that the Flemish region is seeing its unemployment rate rise steadily each month.
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According to the VDAB report, the increase in unemployed job seekers is largely due to the high influx of job seekers from non-EU countries – mostly those from Ukraine. However, the surge is predominantly due to the group of so-called “non-professionals”, who were previously not in a job nor were they looking for one, but are now seeking to find work.
This rise in "non-professionals" is off the back of a campaign run by the VDAB in April, in which the employment service sought to encourage people to look for work using skills they already have.
