The number of unemployed people in Flanders who received benefits in April has remained stable compared to a year ago. This is evident from figures from the VDAB.
Source: Belga
About 110,530 Flemish people received unemployment benefits at the end of April. That is about the same as a year earlier. The unemployment rate has also remained stable compared to last year (6.6 percent).
Striking figures, because unemployment regulations have been reformed this year and benefits are now limited to two years. The fact that unemployment is not falling is a result of the economic situation, says VDAB spokeswoman Lies Reynaert. “More people are losing their jobs and ending up unemployed.”
Delay figures
An additional reason is that the loss of unemployment occurs in waves. The April figures only include the first two waves. For the time being it concerns 15,000 people. The large group of people who lose their benefits has yet to arrive. In addition, there is some delay in the figures that the VDAB receives.
In addition to the more than 110,000 people who received benefits, there are also more than 96,000 former non-active people (i.e. without unemployment benefits) and 4,633 young people in vocational integration.