Statistics Belgium

Economic Statistics Department

NG III – 4th floor

Boulevard du Roi Albert II, 16

1000 Brussels

Job vacancy statistics (JVS) provide information on the level and structure of labour demand. The country transmits to Eurostat the quarterly data on the number of job vacancies and the number of occupied posts as well as provides the quality report under the JVS framework regulation and the two implementing regulations: the implementing regulation on the definition of a job vacancy, the reference dates for data collection, data transmission specifications and feasibility studies, as well as the implementing regulation on seasonal adjustment procedures and quality reports.

The quarterly data are broken down by economic activity (at section level) in accordance with NACE Rev. 2 - Statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community.

The data cover all the economic activities defined by NACE Rev. 2, except agriculture, forestry and fishing activities (optional in the JVS framework regulation), and the activities of households as employers and the activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies.

A 'job vacancy' is defined as a paid post that is newly created, unoccupied, or about to become vacant:

(a) for which the employer is taking active steps and is prepared to take further steps to find a suitable candidate from outside the enterprise concerned; and

(b) which the employer intends to fill either immediately or within a specific period of time.

‘Active steps to find a suitable candidate’ include:

- notifying the job vacancy to the public employment services,

- contacting a private employment agency/head hunters,

- advertising the vacancy in the media (for example internet, newspapers, magazines),

- advertising the vacancy on a public notice board,

- approaching, interviewing or selecting possible candidates/potential recruits directly,

- approaching employees and/or personal contacts,

- using internships.

'Specific period of time’ refers to the maximum time the vacancy is open and intended to be filled. That period shall be unlimited; all vacancies for which active steps are continuing on the reference date shall be reported.

An 'occupied post’ means a paid post within the organisation to which an employee has been assigned.

The statistical unit for the data collection is the enterprise for NACE sections B to S except groups 85.1, 85.2 and 85.3 (in NACE section P) for which the statistical unit is the local unit.

Enterprises with one and more employees

Belgium and NUTS 1 regions (Brussels-Capital Region, Flemish Region and Walloon Region)

Data are from the first quarter 2010 onwards.

Not applicable.

The statistical processing method uses the monthly Dimona flows (administrative source from the NSSO, National Social Security Office) for the pre-filling, the sampling, the extrapolation and the calibration. It uses the quarterly data from the enterprise (or local unit) web survey to estimate the number of occupied posts and job vacancies by sector and enterprise size. 

Data validation is performed at two levels.

Individual data are validated by the Data Collection Department with the help of the Economic Statistics Department. Aggregated data are then validated by the Economic Statistics Department and the Planning Department. 

The seasonally adjusted series on the number of occupied posts and job vacancies have been produced for all NACE sections B to S using the processing model RSA4 of the JDemetra+ software. 

Optional

Since 2012 the Belgian Job Vacancy Survey has been used to provide the estimated number of formal and informal job vacancies (published by regional employment offices or not) on a quarterly basis, by enterprise size (more or less than 10 employees) and economic sector (NACE sections from B to S). From 2013 onwards, the survey also allows estimations of occupied posts and job vacancies for temporary positions.

Since 2014 the number of occupied posts and job vacancies in sections O, P and Q has been estimated in three phases: i) determination of results extrapolated from the survey among enterprises, ii) breakdown of data from phase i) by section (O, P and Q) on the basis of allocation keys for occupied posts, iii) integration of the results extrapolated from the survey among local units into section P (only for NACE groups 85.1, 85.2 and 85.3).

Phase ii) is carried out in order to take into account the fact that many local units belonged to enterprises that were not classified in the same NACE section. This was, for example, the case for municipal schools (P) belonging to municipal administrations (O) or for university hospitals (Q) belonging to universities (P). Phase iii) was required when most enterprises classified in NACE groups 85.1, 85.2 and 85.3 (compulsory and subsidised education) indicated that they did not know the number of job vacancies in their local units.

The seasonally adjusted series on the number of occupied posts and job vacancies have been produced for all NACE sections B to S using the processing model RSA4 of the JDemetra+ software.      

The Job Vacancy Survey is intended to meet the needs of Eurostat and national users (regional employment offices, National Bank of Belgium, FPS Employment,...).

90% of the quartely data were delivered.

Only the data according to the classification of occupations have not been delivered yet.

The Job Vacancy Survey underestimates the number of occupied posts and job vacancies in NACE sections B and R, which may account for the differences with LFS estimates for these sections.

The Job Vacancy Survey underestimates the number of occupied posts and job vacancies in NACE section R as many local units in this section belong to enterprises classified in section O.

The Job Vacancy Survey also underestimates the number of occupied posts and job vacancies in section B due to the size and the geographic concentration (above all in Wallonia) of this sector.

That was studied by NACE sector.

The occupied posts are also in the administrative databases of the NSSO (National Social Security Office) but the definitions are slightly different. The only great difference between the two sources is that the temporary posts are classified in the temporary employment agencies for administrative data and in the businesses for the survey.  

Although enterprises can (in)validate pre-filled data on occupied posts (on the basis of Dimona flows from the NSSO/NSSOPLA), reporting errors may occur in the number of occupied posts and job vacancies. Enterprises may be misled by pre-filled data, especially if these data are close to the real value. Reporting errors may also occur when declarations are not checked as reported data are sufficiently close to the pre-filled value.

Data checks are indeed performed if the relative difference between pre-filled values and survey data is more than 25%. In 30% of cases, these differences are precisely due to reporting errors. For job vacancies, data are only checked when enterprises reported more job vacancies than occupied posts. In these few cases, 50% of declarations contain errors.

When enterprises respond to the survey, all questions contain an answer as the survey is relatively simple (only 12 answers to give: the number of occupied posts and job vacancies for permanent and temporary positions, for the three regions). 

Respondent enterprises provide an answer for all items.

No processing error

No revision

No revision

Data are delivered to Eurostat 70 days after the reference period. The data were published at national level for the first time in October 2014. These data were for 2012 and 2013. The data for 2014 to 2016 were published two weeks after transmission to Eurostat. Data from 2017 to 2019 were published at the time of the transmission to Eurostat.  Since 2020, the data are published 1 or 2 days after the transmission to Eurostat.

The annual results at national level are published at the same time as the national publication of the 4th quarter results.

Same situation as in 7.1.1 because the publication is only once.

A workflow is implemented to ensure data transmission to Eurostat within 70 days after the end of the reference period.

The data are comparable for occupied posts with publications from the NSSO (National Social Security Office) and the Labour Force Survey (excluding sections B and R). For job vacancies, the data from the regional employment offices (Actiris, ADG, Le Forem and the VDAB) are too different and partial. 

The survey only studies the occupied and vacant posts in Belgium.

The survey is not interested in the frontier workers.

The years 2012 to 2014 for permanent positions in sections B to S excluding sections O, P and Q.

The years 2013 and 2014 for temporary and permanent positions in sections B to S excluding sections O, P and Q.

The years 2014 to 2022 for temporary and permanent positions in all sections B to S.

Quarterly and annual data on occupied posts from the NSSO (National Social Security Office), as well as data from the Labour Force Survey, are comparable with the survey data, except sections B and R (see in 6.1 for explanations).

Survey data on job vacancies are in no way comparable with the data published by the regional employment offices on the number of job offers recorded in their agencies.

National Accounts use the quarterly and annual data on occupied posts from the NSSO (National Social Security Office). Job vacancies are not estimated. However, unemployment statistics are mainly based on the data from the regional employment offices. 

The results by sector and enterprise size estimated on the basis of the survey are coherent with each other.

Data for 2022 at national level were published  on 10^th of June 2022 (1^st quarter),  9^th of September 2022 (2^nd quarter), 9^th of December 2022 (3^rd quarter) and 9^th of March 2023 (4^th quarter).

Not planned any more.

The analysis is disseminated in downloadable Word format from our "Statbel" website.

Not planned yet.

Dissemination of a single downloadable Excel file on our "Statbel" website in which all annual and quarterly data are contained.

No dissemination of individual data.

Not planned yet.

Publication of a webpage on our "Statbel" website containing a presentation of the main methodological characteristics of the Job Vacancy Survey.

All documentation on the Job Vacancy Survey is archived on our servers as part of a "Synergy" project (which is a programme to reform the workflow at five levels: standardisation, optimisation, documentation, dissemination and quality).

Update of two Word documents on metadata in December of every year: one on the collection and another on the statistical production.

Publication of a summary on our "Statbel" website containing relevant information from the updated documents under 9.7.

Production costs and the response burden are reduced:

• The survey form is quite short and simple (only 12 answers to give);
• The use of a web survey;
• Data on occupied posts are pre-filled on the basis of recent administrative data (Dimona flows from the NSSO, National Social Security Office).

The reform launched in 2016 and completed in 2019 led to two achievements in the first quarter of 2020: 1) a simplification of the questionnaire for enterprises with occupied posts in only one region, 2) an additional module with two additional questions about the duration of job vacancies and the recruitment channels.

This additional module is only attached to the first survey (Q1) of each year since 2020.

Confidentiality rules are less stringent for enterprises than for natural persons. However, individual data (per enterprise) need to be anonymised when they are transmitted outside Statistics Belgium.

Individual data are protected by the Belgian Statistics Act. The publication at national level may only include aggregated results.