The monthly unemployment rate in the Brussels Region went down for the 38th consecutive month in December 2017, and now stands at 16.4%, Actiris reported on Wednesday. Youthful unemployment measured on a monthly basis decreased for the 55th consecutive month, and is now 24.3%, the regional employment service added.

The number of jobseekers in Brussels was 91,091 last month, a drop of 894 (-1%) compared to November 2017 and 5,645 units (-5,8%) lower than in December 2016.

The drop was more marked among jobseekers under the age of 25 years: there were 569 (-5.6%) fewer young jobseekers in December 2017 than in November 2017, and 1,076 fewer (-10.1%) than in December 2016.

The just over 91,000 jobseekers included 25,011 “employment seekers registered freely or on a compulsory basis”, including people without unemployment allocations and those without any alternative income.

Actiris disclosed that 14,509 job offers were received in December, most of them – 7,438 – through Wallonia’s department of professional training and employment, Forem, and the VDAB, the public employment service of Flanders, within the framework of inter-regional mobility for jobseekers.

Christopher Vincent

The Brussels Times