The Europe 2020 strategy lays the foundations for “smart, sustainable and inclusive” growth for the decade to come. Alongside this, a three-pronged monitoring mechanism – incorporating fiscal, macroeconomic and thematic surveillance – has been put in place to coordinate and supervise...

In a context of slowing economic growth in 2011, growth in employment in the companies that filled a social balance sheet in 2010 and 2011 fell from an annual average of 1.5 % to 1 % by the end of the year. The health and social work branch made the biggest contribution to this trend, followed...

The reasons for a mismatch between labour supply and demand can be cyclical, frictional or structural, which is typically when the educational level of job-seekers does not correspond to the profiles sought on the labour market or there is a lack of geographic mobility. By using a...

The difficulties concerning integration into the labour market of people of foreign origin are of crucial importance in Belgium, especially as immigrants represent 14 % of the resident population, one of the largest proportions in the EU. While the employment rate of European immigrants is close...

The economic recovery which followed the Great Recession of 2008 was reflected in a 0.5 % average increase in the workforce according to the social balance sheets used for the analysis of the year 2010. That expansion gathered pace during the year to 1 %, pointing to the usual time lag between...

One of the most remarkable characteristics of the world economy today is the enormous, ever worsening US balance of payments current account deficit, which reached a record level of 5.7 p.c. of GDP in 2004. This has given rise to concerns in academic and political circles regarding the...

The impact of the economic recession on employment is reflected in the information gleaned from social balance sheets filed for the year 2009. Staff numbers were down by 1.2 p.c. compared with 31 December 2008, which is more than double the average annual decline. As evidence of the use that...

According to the results of the social balance sheets available in September 2008, employment rose by 2.3 p.c. in 2007. The increase concerned both full-time as well as part-time workers. The rise in part-time working is only partially explained by the hiring of part-time workers : this year...

In the past few years, constant price increases have attracted much attention to commodity markets. The nominal prices of oil and most metals reached record levels, and their real prices reached the highest level in many years. The recent price surge was due mainly to a strong increase in demand...

According to the 2006 social balance sheets of Belgian enterprises, employment on average increased by 1.3 p.c. between 2005 and 2006. It expanded mainly in small and medium-sized enterprises while remaining unchanged in large companies. Employment grew in all branches of activity except in...