Brussels is not included in the survey, which helps to explain why Flanders’ supply of jobs is equivalent to 69% of the adult workforce: tens of thousands of workers commute every day from Flanders to Brussels, although the region is now importing workers from Wallonia and French-speaking Brussels (see Flanders Today, last week).

Kraainem is the least hard-working municipality, with just over half of the inhabitants working. Wingene, on the other hand, has the most workers, with 76.7% of the population in employment. Antwerp has the highest rate of unemployment, at 12% of the workforce, compared to only 2.4% among the inhabitants of Gooik in Flemish Brabant. Zaventem offers the most opportunity to work: there are 2.5 times as many jobs in the municipality than there are people living there. Mesen in West Flanders, a commune with only 10% of its area not agricultural land, scores lowest, with only one job for every four of its barely 1,000 inhabitants.

In another study, the VDAB found that obliging jobseekers to apply for a particular vacancy made them 2.6 times more likely to get the job than if the choice is left open. Newly unemployed people who received orders to apply for jobs for which they had been screened were 26% more likely to be in employment after two years, compared to the group that still applied for jobs, but did so without screening and without being obliged to. In addition, the effect was seen across all groups, including the longterm unemployed, immigrants and those with low educational qualifications.