The figure is a result of a cooperative effort among the regions to use unfilled job vacancies in Flanders to take the pressure off of unemployment rates in the other two regions. "The result is good, but could be better," said Fons Leroy, VDAB's director. "Above all, it's not been shown that we can change things."

While the figure is lower than may have been hoped, it was pointed out that it is better than it used to be, when mobility across the language border was virtually zero. In any case, taking account of jobs found outside of the official agency, the real total is likely to be higher.

The effort has been going on since 2005, firstly to make vacancies known, and later to offer assistance in making the necessary arrangements. In 2007 the VDAB advertised 62,000 jobs with the Walloon equivalent Forem, and 65,000 with the Brussels agency Actiris. Other efforts have included "job dating" sessions and language courses. Given those figures, the actual number of jobs taken up does seem small: about one in 20 vacancies are filled (many of the jobs are advertised in both Brussels and Wallonia).

Brussels provided 2,043 of the new workers, and 435 training interns. Wallonia accounted for 816 jobs and 188 stages.