Unemployment rates in Europe, per country, latest data for 2022 including the non-EU countries – Huh thought ours was higher?

5 comments

  1. Bottom of the article, methodology:

    >An individual is considered unemployed if they have been looking for work within the previous four weeks and are available to begin working within the following two weeks, as stated by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

    Moody’s also uses this: https://www.economy.com/belgium/unemployment

    And our own government too says this: https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/work-training/labour-market/employment-and-unemployment

    Go to “Figures” and “Table 1” for a detailed look. The bottom summary puts us at 5.4% unemployed, 1st quarter of 2022. And the numbers of the previous quarters show this is a continuous improvement.

    So if you’ve been hearing politicians and pundits claim different numbers… maybe ask yourself why they’re deceiving you.

  3. Unemployed is NOT the same as inactive!

    Belgium has a lot of inactive people and very few unemployed people.

    Unemployed= no job but looking for a job

    Inactive= housewife, fire, official handicap/sick, ….

    Due to our welfare system it is perfectly possible to sustain a large volume of inactive persons. However they hurt your economy double – they receive welfare and don’t add to the tax system, yet they do use roads, hospitals, schools etc…

    Walk around during a weekday, most of these people are not unemployed!

    Perverse effect: when the husband doesn’t earn a lot its often beneficial the wife stays home so they apply for welfare – as a result these women end up in a circle where they are fenced off from society, their only social contact being an echo-room of the same women.

  4. In the case of Belgium -despite it’s small size – one thing that’s worth noting is the regional différences can be substantial. So in some ways, the national figure is somewhat meaningless.

Leave a Reply