Employment at its highest levels
With a total of 97,420 jobs, employment in this sector is at its highest level since 2001. A dynamic market that does not mask recruitment difficulties: “I think we might have been at 100,000 if we had found all the labor capacities we are looking for“explains Yves Vershueren who completes:”We are very active in the recruitment market, we are also very active in training young people. We see that there are not yet enough talents in preparation in the generations to come to replace all those who will reach retirement age.“
A difficulty that Hugues Bultot, from Universells, does not deny either: “But the role of an entrepreneur is to overcome the difficulties. The global economy lacks this type of profile so there is very clearly a war for talent. We are very creative and we rely on good anticipation: we do not hesitate to recruit in other sectors and to train, we do not hesitate to recruit abroad, and despite the narrowness of the market, we performs once morest multinationals“launches the entrepreneur.
What regarding vacancies? “You should know that these are not only scientific profiles. Since we are in the industrial field of biotechnology, we offer very varied profiles ranging from logistician to scientist, from engineer to automation specialist, so we have the possibility of offering the whole range of jobs.“completes Mr. Bultot.
Moreover, 80% of the new positions touted by the sector are so-called “production” jobs: line operators, depositing raw materials, taking care of mixtures, but also packaging and therefore the more logistical aspects, or more technicians for the supervision of the chain and its maintenance.
A market under tension which, moreover, did not prevent last year several strikes in companies in the chemical sector and even the threat of a day of national strike: social peace was no longer guaranteed, the unions demanded a revaluation of all these workers active during the confinements and accused the employers’ federations of having put “abruptly“End of discussion. The strike will finally be narrowly avoided : an agreement was finally reached, it provided for a salary increase of 0.4% from January 1 of this year, with a minimum of 10 euro cents per hour and a corona bonus of 200€. At the same time, Managing Director Yves Verschueren stresses that the sector is also very exposed to international competition, which is why he asks the government to “maintain wage standards law.”
Spectacular growth, thanks to anti-Covid vaccines…
Past social tensions, the sector wants to turn to the positive. First, with turnover rising once more last year (+22%) to reach €74 billion, “mainly due to strong price increases“, notes Essenscia who also observes that “companies in the sector invested a record amount of 2.7 billion euros (+17%) last year and innovation spending on research and development also remained at a historically high level of 5.5 billion euros, i.e. double of ten years ago.“
Exports were boosted by the health crisis and particularly by the production of vaccines once morest Covid-19, resulting in spectacular growth: +33%.
However, “It should not only be seen as an opportunity for pharmsa”, warns Hugues Bultot of Univercells before specifying: “The industry has been put to great contribution, of course, we talk a lot regarding those who have won, but very little regarding those who have lost. There were once more than 200 vaccine candidates, if I ask you today to name five of them you will encounter difficulties. What we don’t see are all the efforts undertaken by the entire industry, and then the sacrifices that had to be made: all that was devoted to Covid was not devoted to other projects that were just as promising and which were put on hold. So the results are mixed: there were accelerations and opportunities, but we suffered like everyone else.“
Essenscia claims the position of leading Belgian exporter with 37% of total exports. “Within the European Union, Belgium has even become the second most important exporting country of chemicals, plastics and pharmaceuticals, following Germany.“says the federation. If the sector takes second place in Europe in 2021, Germany remains the export champion in the field.
… but a lot of uncertainties, even concerns
But will the future also be rose ? “It is already certain that the figures for this year 2022 will not be as good“, warns the sector from the outset. The cause: the Ukrainian crisis. With the rise in energy prices, production costs are rising, while inflation is becoming a handicap. Will the sector postpone investments and revise downwards its recruitment forecasts?It’s no longer unthinkable” glisse-t-on.
