In Wallonia, the employment rate among 20-64 year olds is 65% in 2022. This figure has fallen by 0.4% compared to 2021 (65.4), unlike Flanders and Brussels where the figures have increased (from 75% to 76.3% and from 61.6% to 64.8%). Why are the Walloons the bad students?
To answer this question, Pierre Wunsch is the guest of this October 9 in It’s not every day on Sunday. The governor of the national bank for four years has set himself the objective of increasing the number of Belgians who work, but it is clear that Wallonia is lagging behind.
According to Pierre Wunsh, this “strong lag is nothing new”. The fall in the employment rate between 2021 and 2022 in Wallonia does not alarm him, however: “The drop is temporary, I can’t explain it like that, it can be a lot of things, what’s important is the structural problem”he says on the set of CPTLJD.
The country’s top economist backs up: “For many years we had ‘excuses’, the unemployment rate was high, there weren’t jobs for everyone…”, he says. But today the situation is different… “Here we are in a period that has lasted for a few years where companies are having difficulty finding workers.”
Social aid would also not encourage some people to set foot in the employment stirrup in Wallonia. “There are people who are in real need and people who can tell themselves that it’s just as well to receive an allowance and to work a little on the side on the side to tell things as they are”Selon Pierre Desire.
“Not necessarily the same references”
The differences in mentalities would partly explain these realities of employment for our guest. “It’s probably a cultural problem to accept that at some point if we can’t find the job of our dreams we will take another one that we dream of a little less rather than receiving benefits if we have the possibility. “analyzes the governor of the national bank. “I think that when you have lived for a number of years in a situation where unemployment was high, you do not necessarily have the same references as when you have lived on a very low unemployment rate.”
The situation would therefore be explained by the legacy of a difficult economic situation and the Flemings would be more ready to accept work than the Walloons who have evolved in recent years in a society where the unemployment rate has often been high. “It takes time for mentalities to adapt and say that if there are jobs, they have to be taken”believes Pierre Wunsch before qualifying: “There are also difficult situations, there are people who seek and who do not find.”
