The number of job seekers in Flanders increased by about 17 percent in one year in October to 213,446 people, the VDAB reported on Tuesday. The figures have been rising for some time now because the group of formerly non-professionally active job seekers, who are not entitled to benefits, is increasing. Compensated unemployment, on the other hand, has fallen.
The number of formerly non-professionally active job seekers increased by 50 percent in one year to 92,700. Job seekers with a benefit application fell by 2 percent to 104,971. Just under half of job seekers without work are job seekers with a benefit application, according to the Flemish labor mediator. This also concerns young people in the vocational integration period and the other category.
Compared to September, the number of job seekers without work has fallen by just over 1,000 people. “The inflow in the month of October was approximately 25,500, while the outflow was almost 27,000,” says the Flemish labor mediator in the monthly job seeker report. More than three out of four graduates went to work.
READ ALSO. One social tenant in five is unemployed, but can work
Earlier this year, the VDAB emphasized in response to the job seeker figures that the increase in the general figure is due to the registration of more and more people who were not professionally active. This includes people with a living wage or sickness benefit or people integrating. “Reaching these people is desperately needed, because the number of job seekers receiving unemployment benefits continues to decline,” was the reference to filling the many vacancies.
Last month, in addition to job seekers without work, the VDAB also registered more than 73,000 working civilian customers and almost 15,000 students and others.
Rise in Brussels
The number of job seekers also continues to rise in the capital. At the end of October, the Brussels region had 91,293 job seekers, an increase of 3.6 percent compared to October 2022. However, the number of Brussels job seekers receiving benefits fell by 3.9 percent, employment mediator Actiris reported on Tuesday.
The unemployment rate therefore stood at 15.1 percent in the Brussels region. The youth unemployment rate was 28.9 percent. The region had 10,852 young job seekers in October, or 915 more people than a year ago (+9.2 percent).
In October, the Brussels region had 50,146 job seekers who applied for benefits (WZUA), 7,265 young people in vocational integration period and 33,882 other non-working job seekers who were compulsorily or freely registered.
