New workers are part time and low paid

Fewer than half of all new entrants to the workforce start with a full-time job, according to research carried out by the Leuven-based research bureau Steunpunt WSE. Of the 164,000 young people who entered the workforce for the first time in 2006, 18.9% were temping and 32.2% had taken a part-time job. Just under half – 48.9% – were starting off in fulltime employment.

The figures are markedly different from those for the workforce as a whole. At the same time, 69% of the total workforce in Flanders of 2.1 million people were working full time, with temp work taking up only 2.8%. More than half of young people (52.9%) were classed as “workers” and 45.5% as “staff”. A minimal 1.6% were civil servants. That compares to a total of 37.7% workers in the population as a whole, and 16% civil servants.

The new workers are mostly (52.9%) paid less than €80 a day, with 41.5% getting between €80 and €125, and only the lucky few (5.5%) making more. Nearly half of all workers make €80 to €125 a day, with 21% making less.

• On the other side of the employment picture, the cost of unemployment benefits this year is expected to reach €10.9 billion, an increase of 13.5%, according to the Flemish employers’ federation Voka. The organisation estimates an increase of 100,000 people without work, considerably more than the federal government’s projection of 64,000.

Crisis means less waste

Businesses are producing less waste as a result of the economic crisis, according to the official dump sites that exist to process waste. One example, the Hooge Maey dump on the A12 in the Port of Antwerp, has been closed for a total of four weeks in recent months, with the amount of industrial waste being delivered there down by 50%. Director Daniël Dirickx estimated that the total for 2009, based on results so far, could be as low as 110,000 tonnes, compared to an earlier forecast of 200,000 tonnes.

There are 14 recognised industrial waste dumps in Flanders, and similar trends are being seen there. “We don’t have exact figures yet,” said a spokesman for the regional waste agency Ovam. “But it can happen that we will close all 14 dumps because our incineration ovens are able to process not only the amount of domestic waste delivered, but also industrial waste. And that’s of course very satisfying because we want to avoid waste dumping as much as possible.” Household waste, by contrast, is not declining in quantity, regardless of the crisis.

The news was welcomed by the Better Environment Union (BBL), who also oppose the dumping of waste. But the respite is only temporary, they warned. “We predict that the amount of industrial waste being brought in will go back up again the minute the economy recovers,” a spokesman said.

(March 3, 2009)