More than a third of Belgian employers plan on increasing their total number of workers over the coming months, raising hopes that Belgium's economic predicament isn't quite as dire as some experts had previously suspected.
According recruitment company Manpower's recent survey, which was reported on by l'Echo, 38% of Belgian businesses aim to hire new staff by the end of September, while less than half this number (15%) said that they are aiming to reduce their workforce over this period.
The study also found that businesses in the financial services and real estate sectors are especially keen to take on new employees. Moreover, larger businesses (i.e. those with more than 50 workers) are on average three times more likely to increase their workforce than smaller companies.
"Hiring staff is a significant risk and investment, and this is even more true for small structures," said Sébastien Delfosse, Manpower's Managing Director for Belgium and Luxembourg.
A glimmer of hope – or a false dawn?
The survey's findings stand in stark contrast to other recent studies, the vast majority of which have painted an unremittingly bleak picture of the state of the Belgian economy.
In its latest annual report, the National Bank of Belgium (BNB) argued that Belgium faces a serious risk of deindustrialisation in the coming months as high energy prices and government-mandated wage indexations induce a potentially irreversible "decline in competitiveness".
Notably, however, BNB Governor Pierre Wunsch claimed that the principal reason why the Belgian economy has been able to stave off complete collapse is the "strong" performance of its labour market. In particular, he pointed to the fact that a total of 101,000 jobs were created in Belgium last year – the largest number since records began in 1953.
"The resilience of the economy is mainly due to the strong labour market, which supported consumer confidence," Wunsch explained.
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However, it is unclear how long this resilience will last. As the BNB report also noted, job creation this year is expected to be "significantly lower" than in 2022. Moreover, the report emphasised that "the competitiveness of Belgian companies is now deteriorating sharply".
The BNB's findings were arguably corroborated by another study published earlier this month by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which found that "solid labour demand" is one of the main factors that will "sustain activity" in Belgium over the coming months.
Yet the OECD also noted that Belgium's overall economic prospects remain bleak. "Inflation, tighter financing conditions, and high uncertainty will drag on domestic growth, while weak global trade prospects will weigh on net exports," the report stated.
