Need for workers despite high unemployment

21 April 2005

BRUSSELS – Despite high unemployment overall some sectors are desperately seeking decent employees in Belgium, it was reported Thursday.

In several fields that employment experts have dubbed “critical functions”, there has been a downright shortage of labour for several years, said a report in La Derniere Heure.

Those most in demand by employers are, in order of importance: accountants, executive secretaries, dispatchers, customer service supervisors, financial analysts, salespeople, shippers, drafts persons and hi-tech employees.

And the most urgently needed workers are: electrical engineers, electricians, mechanics for both cars and trucks, welders, butchers, truck drivers, milling machine operators and turners, sheet-iron merchants or carriage-builders and electronics specialists.

“Young people leaving school with any expertise in any of these areas are almost certain to find employment,” said Fridiric Druck, a spokesman for Belgian employment partners’ federation Federgon.

There is a 12.6 percent official unemployment rate in Belgium.

On 31 March 2005 there were 58,4428 unfilled job vacancies, of which 22,7184 were in Flanders, 26,3386 in Wallonia and 93,858 in Brussels.

Butchers are in particularly high demand in Wallonia, according to local temporary employment agencies.

Logistics workers are in high demand in more industrialised Flanders, while linguistic gaps are cited as the main reason behind a failure to fill certain jobs in Brussels.

To find a job, Druck and other Belgian employment experts recommend making inquiries at temporary employment agencies that are at the forefront of job search trends.

Subject : Belgian news