I think *”worst”* is the wrong word here. It’s just among the lowest. But I wouldn’t say that not having to work is a bad thing.
Looks like the biggest differences are within the female workforce?
Well, tbh, I know at least 2 working age adults who don’t work and haven’t for some time (10+ years). Both are highly intelligent, one’s highly educated and both suffer from depression.
Just last week I was in public transport and a early 20s something guy next to me was talking to his friend on the phone and he said “my life’s pretty much sleeping. That’s the only thing I do.”
That’s all just anecdotal of course, but I think we have quite a high percentage of people on disability, although I can’t remember the numbers.
Well, when the average person aged 15 to 23 is studying, you already remove a big chunk of the working population, which is hardly a bad thing.
Then on top of that you get people searching for a job, people who retire early, stay at home parents and a small ammount of people who just don’t want to work.
COME ON STEP UP. THIS SHOULD GO LOWER.
If we would have a significantly higher labour force participation rate, our country’s finances would be in way better shape. Which ultimately means less taxes or a better running country.
Wow, 15 onward? why include children in that graph? That’s awful. Because of that, this is an awful graph – downvote. Not sure how many countries still partake in child labor, but I’m glad kids get to go to school here.
Edit: Outside of this take, this graph does harken back to the age-old debate of who works vs who isn’t working. Right-wing organizations love throwing awful graphs like this around saying we need to activate the non-working population.
But people who are well-versed in this topic will point out that most people in this graph are students (the overwhelming majority even), housewifes, permanently injured people or people with some sort of long-term sick leave, retired people, people who are caring for ill people (manteldragers) and probably a few more categories. That also explains why “unemployed” women far outnumber men in every country. Caretakers and housewives are usually women.
The average Belgian career is 32 years. That’s just sad and thus those figures are not surprising
Working in this country gets punished by extremely high labortaxes. Not working in this country gets promoted. Simple as that. Also, include the % of people working in the public sector and you see how bad the situation is.
15 onward must skew this a lot. If they took 21 or 22 onward or even 25 onward to make sure bachelor and master students were included I bet the graph would look better.
Though we have a low participation rate at 55+, and we have a really bad rep in terms of burn-out.
These comments should be good
I don’t see this improving. The people fairly paying more than 50% of what they earn are just going to seek opportunities elsewhere. Who wants to contribute to a country where the willingness to work has been structurally destroyed by entities like the PS/ABVV/FGTB.
We’re above the OECD average for women though, so at least that’s something…
To clarify:
Labour force participation rate = (employed + unemployed between 15 and 64) / population between 15 and 64
Male participation is also low pretty low. So I think it would be unfair to make any judgements about gender equality by % female participation alone as the graph appears to encourage us to do.
Maybe this has to do with the fact that it is way to easy to go to ocmw, do nothing and get free money in this country. I heard stories from people who will receive more money if they do nothing than if they start to work at minimum wage. Belgium is heaven for receiving free money for doing nothing
I don’t know about the Dutch. I hardly believe that we’re that high on the list. Does part time count? We’re world champion parttime workers
Well, that’s sad. Also, why is it so low for men, too?
It’s written that’s it’s for short term market labour. People who work for a long time, are they excluded?
My dad often says: “Only idiotic donkeys are the ones who still work.”
He gets frustrated when he sees people at the beach, going on flights not in high season or who are chilling at cafés or restaurants. When he is working all day. Living from paycheck to paycheck doing heavy physical labour as a mechanic.
Het is volgens mij vrij simpel, je krijgt hier genoeg geld als professioneel dopper en de meeste jobs waar een hogere opleiding n.v.t. is, zijn hersendood werk waar je binnen de kortste keren gek van zal worden door de rat race-mentaliteit van de moderne samenleving. Winkelbediende, callcenter-medewerker, achter de vuilkar lopen, … waarom werken en gek worden voor die hooguit 300 euro meer in de maand? Ik keur de NEET lifestyle af, maar ik ben er zeker niet onbegripvol voor dat je op korte termijn crasht met hoe de werkdruk snel te veel kan worden voor het weinige extra dat het opbrengt om te werken. Persoonlijke opinie, that is.
Am woman. Can confirm. Was fired because of husband’s life choice. Sometimes it sucks being born with a vagina.
It’s because Belgium is one of the only countries where after 4 weeks of absence the employer does not pay the wage no more it’s the famous ziekenkas
I see we’re finding an innovative way to “celebrate” International Woman’s Day in Belgium by drawing attention to its relatively low participation rate.
You mean Belgium has one of the lowest. That doesn’t necessarily mean the worst. Much depends on how this is measured. For example, is doing a part time job counted as participating in the labour force equally as doing a full time job? Some countries have a lot of part time workers, others have fewer, because of tax regime or flexibility of employers.
Some countries also have very low pensions and poor social security, so even severely disabled people need to work to survive . Some countries have extremely high housing (rent) costs so a single income is never enough to keep a roof over your head. Some countries have poor state education so both parents must work full time in highly paid jobs to pay for the private schools.
Belgium’s big problem is that labour is relatively highly taxed, compared to not working for a living (such as living off capital investments or from renting out property). Its big strength however is that its workers are on average well skilled (high quality education provided at low cost) and productivity is very high because infrastructure and public services such as health and transportation are excellent although far from perfect.
Now do Flanders
Being the only country in the world where you can get unemployment money your entire life and combine that with discount on pretty much everything in life this can’t be a surprise.
Belgium is dysfunctional, stuck in bureaucracy, endless union demands and unsustainable government debt. No end in sight
Why do we feel so threatened by this? If they speak dutch and pay there taxes, what’s the problem. Can we just make sure of those things and be happy, please?
What exactly is “participation rate”? Is it full time, or just everybody who has as paid job? This does not explain all the differences, but it puts at least the high score of The Netherlands in perspective.
It should start at least at 18. High schoolers generally only work to get some extra pocket money. While the ‘actual labour force’ works to pay living expenses.
32 comments
I think *”worst”* is the wrong word here. It’s just among the lowest. But I wouldn’t say that not having to work is a bad thing.
Looks like the biggest differences are within the female workforce?
Well, tbh, I know at least 2 working age adults who don’t work and haven’t for some time (10+ years). Both are highly intelligent, one’s highly educated and both suffer from depression.
Just last week I was in public transport and a early 20s something guy next to me was talking to his friend on the phone and he said “my life’s pretty much sleeping. That’s the only thing I do.”
That’s all just anecdotal of course, but I think we have quite a high percentage of people on disability, although I can’t remember the numbers.
Well, when the average person aged 15 to 23 is studying, you already remove a big chunk of the working population, which is hardly a bad thing.
Then on top of that you get people searching for a job, people who retire early, stay at home parents and a small ammount of people who just don’t want to work.
COME ON STEP UP. THIS SHOULD GO LOWER.
If we would have a significantly higher labour force participation rate, our country’s finances would be in way better shape. Which ultimately means less taxes or a better running country.
Weird to only focus on one specific quarter
Long term the participation rate seems to be increasing: https://i.imgur.com/9GEzjwq.png
Wow, 15 onward? why include children in that graph? That’s awful. Because of that, this is an awful graph – downvote. Not sure how many countries still partake in child labor, but I’m glad kids get to go to school here.
Edit: Outside of this take, this graph does harken back to the age-old debate of who works vs who isn’t working. Right-wing organizations love throwing awful graphs like this around saying we need to activate the non-working population.
But people who are well-versed in this topic will point out that most people in this graph are students (the overwhelming majority even), housewifes, permanently injured people or people with some sort of long-term sick leave, retired people, people who are caring for ill people (manteldragers) and probably a few more categories. That also explains why “unemployed” women far outnumber men in every country. Caretakers and housewives are usually women.
The average Belgian career is 32 years. That’s just sad and thus those figures are not surprising
Working in this country gets punished by extremely high labortaxes. Not working in this country gets promoted. Simple as that. Also, include the % of people working in the public sector and you see how bad the situation is.
15 onward must skew this a lot. If they took 21 or 22 onward or even 25 onward to make sure bachelor and master students were included I bet the graph would look better.
Though we have a low participation rate at 55+, and we have a really bad rep in terms of burn-out.
These comments should be good
I don’t see this improving. The people fairly paying more than 50% of what they earn are just going to seek opportunities elsewhere. Who wants to contribute to a country where the willingness to work has been structurally destroyed by entities like the PS/ABVV/FGTB.
We’re above the OECD average for women though, so at least that’s something…
To clarify:
Labour force participation rate = (employed + unemployed between 15 and 64) / population between 15 and 64
Male participation is also low pretty low. So I think it would be unfair to make any judgements about gender equality by % female participation alone as the graph appears to encourage us to do.
By ratio:
Iceland: 0.95 women/man
France: 0.924
Netherlands: 0.916
Belgium: 0.894
EU average: 0.880
US: 0.876
OECD average: 0.818
Maybe this has to do with the fact that it is way to easy to go to ocmw, do nothing and get free money in this country. I heard stories from people who will receive more money if they do nothing than if they start to work at minimum wage. Belgium is heaven for receiving free money for doing nothing
I don’t know about the Dutch. I hardly believe that we’re that high on the list. Does part time count? We’re world champion parttime workers
Well, that’s sad. Also, why is it so low for men, too?
It’s written that’s it’s for short term market labour. People who work for a long time, are they excluded?
My dad often says: “Only idiotic donkeys are the ones who still work.”
He gets frustrated when he sees people at the beach, going on flights not in high season or who are chilling at cafés or restaurants. When he is working all day. Living from paycheck to paycheck doing heavy physical labour as a mechanic.
Het is volgens mij vrij simpel, je krijgt hier genoeg geld als professioneel dopper en de meeste jobs waar een hogere opleiding n.v.t. is, zijn hersendood werk waar je binnen de kortste keren gek van zal worden door de rat race-mentaliteit van de moderne samenleving. Winkelbediende, callcenter-medewerker, achter de vuilkar lopen, … waarom werken en gek worden voor die hooguit 300 euro meer in de maand? Ik keur de NEET lifestyle af, maar ik ben er zeker niet onbegripvol voor dat je op korte termijn crasht met hoe de werkdruk snel te veel kan worden voor het weinige extra dat het opbrengt om te werken. Persoonlijke opinie, that is.
Am woman. Can confirm. Was fired because of husband’s life choice. Sometimes it sucks being born with a vagina.
It’s because Belgium is one of the only countries where after 4 weeks of absence the employer does not pay the wage no more it’s the famous ziekenkas
I see we’re finding an innovative way to “celebrate” International Woman’s Day in Belgium by drawing attention to its relatively low participation rate.
You mean Belgium has one of the lowest. That doesn’t necessarily mean the worst. Much depends on how this is measured. For example, is doing a part time job counted as participating in the labour force equally as doing a full time job? Some countries have a lot of part time workers, others have fewer, because of tax regime or flexibility of employers.
Some countries also have very low pensions and poor social security, so even severely disabled people need to work to survive . Some countries have extremely high housing (rent) costs so a single income is never enough to keep a roof over your head. Some countries have poor state education so both parents must work full time in highly paid jobs to pay for the private schools.
Belgium’s big problem is that labour is relatively highly taxed, compared to not working for a living (such as living off capital investments or from renting out property). Its big strength however is that its workers are on average well skilled (high quality education provided at low cost) and productivity is very high because infrastructure and public services such as health and transportation are excellent although far from perfect.
Now do Flanders
Being the only country in the world where you can get unemployment money your entire life and combine that with discount on pretty much everything in life this can’t be a surprise.
Belgium is dysfunctional, stuck in bureaucracy, endless union demands and unsustainable government debt. No end in sight
Why do we feel so threatened by this? If they speak dutch and pay there taxes, what’s the problem. Can we just make sure of those things and be happy, please?
What exactly is “participation rate”? Is it full time, or just everybody who has as paid job? This does not explain all the differences, but it puts at least the high score of The Netherlands in perspective.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/DDN-20180608-1
It should start at least at 18. High schoolers generally only work to get some extra pocket money. While the ‘actual labour force’ works to pay living expenses.