Belgian employees took more holidays in the first seven months of this year than in the past two corona years. This is shown on Thursday from figures from HR service provider Acerta based on the actual registered holiday hours over the past four years of more than 260,000 employees active at more than 40,000 employers in Belgium.
Over the past two years, taking holidays has been in line with the corona measures. Now, halfway through the summer holidays of 2022, holidays appear to be normalizing again, according to Acerta: 5 percent of the workable hours for the period January-July are registered as holidays, a further increase to the level before corona. It indicates that employees took more vacation in the period January-July than in previous corona years, but still less than before corona (in 2019). Then a holiday share of 5.2 percent was achieved. 2022 will therefore remain 0.2 percentage point below the ‘normal’ average.
“July is the most popular holiday month, so the figures at the end of July already give us a good idea of how employees are dealing with their holiday this year,” says Marijke Beelen, holiday expert at Acerta. “The next month of August will also be a month with a lot of holidays. After that, the holiday hours will decrease, to peak again in December. Because, like every year, all statutory holidays of 2022 will have to be taken on December 31, we advise employers and employees to plan the balance of the holiday in time, especially for the popular period of the Christmas and autumn holidays. .”
Still more economical
Usually, the group of youngest employees spend the longest on holiday frugal, according to Acerta, that will be no different in 2022. “However, we are seeing noticeably more enthusiasm among the group between 25 and 35 years of age this year not to postpone holidays: compared to last year, the number of holiday hours of 25 to 29-year-olds is remarkably higher (+10.3 percent). )”, it sounds. Except for the 60 to 64-year-old category, all employees continue to use holidays even more economically than before corona.
When looking at the number of holiday hours, one sector stands out: construction. There have been 8.8 percent of the workable hours of vacation in recent months, a significantly higher share than the average of 5.0 percent and an approximation of the pre-corona percentage of 2019.
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