A job function is defined as a bottleneck by the VDAB if: there is a shortage of applicants leading to the job being advertised for a longer period or over a wider area than normal; if the applicants who do apply are qualitatively inadequate for the job; or if the job is associated with low pay, dirty or dangerous work or inconvenient hours. The job of cleaner – which tops the list and where there are nearly 20,000 vacancies waiting to be filled – is a perfect example.
Ten jobs have disappeared from the list, including hospital pharmacist, crew on vessels on inland waterways, furniture maker, industrial painter and window cleaner. Some of those jobs are no longer critical because of economyrelated lack of demand, while in other cases training policy has increased the quantity and quality of applicants. Many laid-off industrial workers have retrained as forklift truck drivers, for instance, leading to the job being removed from the new list.
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