Belgium moves up five places in global workforce ranking

Belgium has moved up five places to 50th in ManpowerGroup's annual global labour market ranking.

The staffing firm's Total Workforce Index analyses 200 key labour market indicators related to skills availability, labour costs, regulatory framework and productivity. It examines the recruitment, management, development and retention of the talent critical to business growth.

At a global level, Nicaragua, Honduras and Bolivia are the worst performers, while the US, Singapore and Canada are the best. In Europe, Ireland, the UK and Switzerland are the leading countries, while Turkey, Greece and Slovakia rank lowest.

"the cost of labour remains a significant obstacle when national and foreign investors assess the competitiveness of the Belgian labour market"

"Although our country has moved up in our new global workforce ranking, we cannot be satisfied with Belgium's overall labour market performance," said Sébastien Delfosse, managing director of ManpowerGroup BeLux. Belgium has one of the strongest hiring intentions in the European Union, with 33 per cent of employers making a recruitment push.

Delfosse added that this year mirrors previous reports, stressing that "the cost of labour remains a significant obstacle when national and foreign investors assess the competitiveness of the Belgian labour market". 

"Although our country scores well in terms of labour availability/quality and productivity, this is not enough to compensate for lower scores in terms of labour costs and the regulatory framework, which is more rigid than in most of the other analysed countries," he said.

Belgium lags behind its neighbours. The Netherlands is ranked 14th, while Germany, France and Luxembourg are ranked 42nd, 43rd and 46th respectively.

^{© PHOTO ERIC BERACASSAT / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP}