In February, young people were temporarily unemployed for 5.6% of the days worked. They were also the most likely to stay at home last year, averaging 7.99% temporary unemployment over the total number of days worked.
Since the start of the crisis, this has been a constant: people under 25 have been on average 40% more temporarily unemployed than the average Belgian.
Overall, the lower the age, the higher the temporary unemployment. The only exception: those over 60, who are the second age group to suffer most from temporary unemployment, but well behind the youngest (at 4.22%). In the 24-29 bracket, this figure drops to 4.08%.
The fate of young people can be explained by the violence of the crisis hitting the sectors where they are most active. “In this age group, we have a high proportion of young people without higher education who are more often employed in sectors which have suffered greatly from the crisis” such as “hairdressing and beauty care, catering, cleaning , the food trade, the socio-cultural sector, garages, landscaping and garden maintenance and ground support at airports “, explains Jean-Luc Vanneuwenhuyse, from the SD Worx knowledge center.
SD Worx’s report was carried out on the basis of salary data from 70,000 employers and nearly one million Belgian workers.