Belgium adds nearly 40,000 full-time government jobs since 2019
Belgium added 39,200 full-time government jobs between the end of 2019 and the end of 2024, according to figures obtained by Het Laatste Nieuws from the National Social Security Office and other government departments. The country now has almost 1 million full-time civil servants.
Between 2014 and 2019, the number of full-time civil service jobs in Belgium increased by 25,500. But the government workforce grew even faster during the past five years, a period marked by the Covid-19 pandemic and an energy crisis. Job growth in the public sector has even outpaced that of the private sector.
Largest growth in education
Education accounts for more than 65 per cent of the growth since 2014, representing over 42,000 additional jobs in 10 years, with Flanders standing out in particular.
Growth has been much more modest in other sectors, such as the police and the army. The federal police added around 1,000 full-time jobs over the past decade, and local police 1,500. The army, meanwhile, shrank by more than 3,000 full-time soldiers during that period, although numbers have started to rise again since 2022.
At the provincial level, employment has decreased due to a transfer of powers to the country's regions or local governments.
#FlandersNewsService | © BELGA PHOTO ERIC LALMAND
Related news
