Understanding Job Turnover in Belgium: Insights from Dynam’s Latest Publication

2023-07-24 16:59:00

Job turnover is particularly high in our country, according to the latest Dynam publication. Dynam is a partnership between the National Social Security Office (ONSS) and HIVA, the Institute for Labor and Society Research of KULeuven, in collaboration with the Regions. This scientific project aims to reveal the movements in the labor market that are hidden behind employment statistics. Thanks to data from the ONSS, it analyzes the creation and destruction of jobs in companies as well as the movements of workers (entries and exits from the labor market, job changes).

In the study he has just published, Dynam finds that the dynamics of the labor market, which had quickly recovered following the Corona crisis, continue. The data collected at the end of 2022, compared to those of a year earlier, show that despite the multiple crisis of 2022 (inflation, Ukraine, energy, etc.), the strong recovery following the Corona period is maintained. In 2021, there was a sharp increase in job creation (+31%) combined with a drop in job destruction (-32%), which led to a net increase of 91,000 jobs. In 2022, job creation will remain at this level, the highest level ever reached, but job losses will increase by 16% compared to the previous year. The result is a net increase of 70,000 jobs, or 30% less than the previous year.

Why the employment rate of Brussels residents should increase faster than that of Flemings and Walloons

A sign of trust

But most remarkable is the unprecedented dynamics of employees in the Belgian labor market. The entry rate (i.e. the number of people entering a company for 100 jobs) reached 19.4% at the end of 2022 (compared to 18.4% a year earlier). The exit rate reached 17.7% ( once morest 16.1% a year earlier). This results in a “churning” rate – or job rotation rate, that is to say the sum of the movements in and out within the existing job offer for 100 jobs – of 26.9% (compared to 24.8% a year before). “Never before have we observed such a dynamic labor market since the beginning of the Dynam time series” in 2014, note the authors of the analysis.

This dynamism is a sign of confidence in the economy. The turnover rate measures the confidence that employers and workers place in new commitments and the predisposition of workers to leave their current job. “These figures show that despite the slight decline in net job creation, the dynamics of the labor market continue to increase,” stresses Dynam. The study shows that most sectors are following this global trend.

Increase in flexi-jobs and full-time jobs

As for the types of jobs concerned, the data compiled show that the number of flexi-jobs (a form of employment allowing a worker to carry out a complementary job under advantageous conditions, for example in commerce) is increasing sharply over time. Relatively speaking, the importance of flex jobs in the number of entries into the labor market is also increasing systematically. This development is mainly to the detriment of part-time jobs and other special forms of work. The share of full-time jobs in entries has been increasing systematically for years, reaching 56.1% at the end of 2022, where it was only 52.3% at the end of 2014.

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