Most new jobs created by large companies since 2014

Three out of four jobs created during the current federal government’s term of office were in large companies in the private sector, according to the state service for social security ONSS. The figures cover 83,742 new jobs created between the third quarter of 2014 and the same period in 2016.

Belgian employment is usually considered as dependent on small and medium-sized enterprises, with companies of fewer than 200 employees, making up 56% of employment. However, in the period concerned by the study, that sector accounted for only 20,600 new jobs, compared to 63,100 in large companies and corporations.

According to Edward Roossens, chief economist at the Federation of Belgian Enterprise in Brussels, government measures are responsible for the change: the decision to skip a year in indexing wages, changes to taxation and lowering the costs of employment. “Large companies benefitted the most,” Roossens told Trends magazine.

Belgium’s competitive disadvantage compared to neighbouring countries like the Netherlands, France and Germany, measured at 14% in previous years, now stands at 9%, the RSV said. The hourly cost of employment is now five percentage points cheaper.

However all of the new jobs are not full-time; 70% of the newly-created jobs are at least half-time, with 25,400 being full-time.