Belgium's unemployment rate has returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to the National Employment Office's (Onem) 2023 report.
The number of unemployed individuals has fallen below 300,000, Onem states. There were on average 295,801 unemployed individuals every month throughout 2023, representing a 2.4% decrease from the previous year.
Onem General Director Jean-Marc Vandenbergh observes that this is the most significant drop in unemployment since 1977 and reflects a modest but positive economic growth. "The statistics show that the working population is growing faster than the population of working age," he added.
Employment vs. inactivity
The decline in unemployment is slightly steeper in Flanders (a 4.5% decrease in one year) than in Wallonia (0.7%) or the Brussels-Capital Region (2%).
Employment is slightly lower in Belgium than in the rest of Europe. 58% of the population is in employment compared to an EU average of 60.8%. The country is slightly behind its neighbours France (58.6%), Germany (67.5%) and the Netherlands (72.2%).
However, the slight lag in Belgium is due to a "relatively high" rate of inactivity (38.6%), a category that refers to people in training or with a long-term illness. "Tackling unemployment is not the solution to boosting the employment rate," says Vandenbergh. "We need to look at the inactive population too."
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The impact of successive Covid-19 crises on unemployment is fading too. Temporary unemployment (a category that became extremely popular throughout the pandemic) has fallen by more than 25% in one year, from a monthly average of 162,675 people in 2023 to 121,127 the previous year.
"This system was a costly buffer during this period, with €7.7 billion in supplementary benefits committed over four years, but it has enabled us to maintain social stability", the Director General explains. "We are almost back to the historically low 2019 rates."
Leave allowances are currently on the rise, with 238,936 allowances paid on average each month – 2.4% more than in 2022. Parental leave is experiencing particular gains (an annual increase of 7%) and Onem observes a consistently steady rise in leave requests.
Onem expects employment to rise in 2024 and plans to invest more in digitalisation to ensure better efficiency. This includes IT training for clients having difficulty with new applications.
