In 2022, the number of job seekers in Brussels reached the lowest level since 2003, according to figures from the employment service Actiris. A side note to that good news is the gradual decline in the figures since September, due to the energy crisis. Unemployment is rising again, especially among young people.
The unemployment rate is calculated on the basis of the labor force. These are the people who are available on the labor market. Within this group, the unemployment figures for the year 2022 as a whole in Brussels look positive.
The region had an average of 86,250 people without work, which is 2.9 percent lower than in 2021 and 2 percent lower compared to 2019, in pre-corona times. Those are the best numbers in 20 years. It is since 2003 that there were so few job seekers in the Brussels region on an annual basis.
However, that fall in unemployment rates was particularly noticeable in the first half of 2022, when the numbers fell by 4.9 percent. In the second half of 2022, the number of unemployed was already closer to the figures for 2021. Then there were only 0.7 percent fewer unemployed than in the same period the year before.
According to the most recent figure, from December 2022, Brussels as a region clocks in at 87,075 job seekers. That is 220 people less than in December 2021, a decrease of 0.3 percent.
Unemployment Figures Have Risen Again Since Last Quarter
Unemployment rates are therefore rising again. Actiris attributes this to the deterioration of the economic situation, which has led to a fall in demand for labour. Another influence on the figures was the high number of registrations by Ukrainians.
“By simulating the figures without the Ukrainian registered, we would have recorded a decrease in the unemployment rate of -3.7 percent (instead of -2.9 percent),” Actiris said.
Youth Unemployment Falls at First, But Rises Again
Finally, more young people also registered. This mainly concerns young people who had to obtain their diploma in 2020 or 2021, but postponed it due to the health crisis and therefore only registered with Actiris for the first time last summer.
Among young people under the age of 25, the unemployment figures are developing less well. Globally, the number of job seekers in this group is down by 1.9 percent, but the figures at the end of the year contrast sharply with those at the beginning of 2022. In January 2022, Actiris recorded a fall of 7.8 percent compared to the same month in 2021, while at the end of the year, in December 2022, it recorded an increase of 5.9 percent compared to a year earlier.
Number of Vacancies is Falling Again
The same trend can be seen in the number of vacancies. During 2022, Actiris directly received 83,656 vacancies. On an annual basis, this is an increase of 38.9 percent compared to 2021, but the number of vacancies fell again in the last quarter of the year. During that period, Actiris received 11.9 percent fewer vacancies compared to the last quarter of 2021. For the month of December 2022, the figures even indicate a decrease of 20.2 percent compared to the same month a year earlier.
“This decline is most certainly explained by the contraction of activities due to the deterioration of the economic situation and the fall in business confidence,” Actiris analyzes.
This article is published on .bruzz.be
