Flemish employers will continue to hire people in the coming months, but the pace of recruitment is slowing down. This is evident from the quarterly barometer of HR organization ManpowerGroup.
The survey of 213 Flemish employers shows that 32 percent of them expect to expand the workforce during the second quarter, while 22 percent expect to make do with fewer employees. That gives a net employment forecast of +10 percent, “the lowest level in two years,” according to ManpowerGroup. In the first quarter the forecast was +19 percent, a year ago it was +36 percent.
Flemish employers are thus considerably less inclined to recruit than their colleagues elsewhere in Belgium. The Walloon employers are the most optimistic when it comes to recruitment intentions (+28 percent) and the Brussels employers also estimate the coming months more favorably (+21 percent) than their Flemish colleagues. For Belgium as a whole, the net employment forecast amounts to +18 percent for the second quarter. That is also a delay: -5 points than at the beginning of the year.
Two statements
According to the HR organization, there are two explanations for the drop in the barometer. On the one hand, “Employers are having to adjust their workforce due to the still unfavorable economic situation and the wage indexation they have had to integrate into their cost structure,” says Sébastien Delfosse, managing director of ManpowerGroup BeLux. And on the other hand, “the structural labor shortage is increasing, jeopardizing the development of our companies”.
With regard to the latter, in a survey organized by ManpowerGroup, four out of five employers in Belgium indicated that they had difficulties filling their vacancies. This applies most to Walloon employers (84 percent) and least to Flemish employers (76 percent). The global average is 77 percent.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss a thing of the stars.