Federal jobless rate rises to 13.4pc

2 August 2005

BRUSSELS — The Belgian unemployment rate rose 1.1 percent in July to 13.4 percent compared with a month earlier, the federal labour office RVA said on Tuesday.

On a yearly comparative basis, the unemployment rate had risen 0.6 percent since July 2004, newspaper ‘De Tijd’ reported.

The number of unemployed job seekers on 31 July was 620,735, of whom 256,446 were in Flanders and 271,486 in Wallonia (2,569 of whom were in the German-speaking community).

There were 92,803 unemployed workers in Brussels, the RVA said.

In July 2005, the number of jobless workers receiving full WZ-UVW benefits was 473,980, a rise of 21,694 compared with June. The rise was due primarily to seasonal effects.

The unemployment rate among men was 11 percent and 16.5 percent among women.

The jobless rate in Flanders was 9.3 percent (7.5 percent for men and 11.6 percent for women), 18.8 percent in Wallonia (15 and 23.6 percent) and 21 percent in Brussels (19.7 and 22.9 percent).

Subject: Belgian news