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Fewer Walloons filling Flemish bottleneck vacancies

Fewer bottleneck vacancies in Flanders are being filled by candidates from Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region. Bottleneck vacancies are vacancies that have proved difficult to fill due to a lack of suitable candidates. Over the past four years the number of people from Wallonia (where unemployment is considerably higher than in Flanders) that have taken on jobs in Flanders has fallen constantly.

The Christian Democrat member of the Flemish Parliament. Robrecht Bothuyne (photo) calls for better communication between the regional employment services.

Mr Bothuyne told the VRT that "Last year around 700 fewer unemployed people from Wallonia found work in Flemish bottleneck professions.

This must and could be better. The VDAD (Flemish Employment Service) sends vacancies to Wallonia, but doesn’t get any feedback about how many (if any) job seekers have been sent to the Flemish company for an interview.”

The apparent lack of information being exchanged between VDAB and its Walloon counterpart Forem is surprising to say the least as the Flemish Government’s coalition agreement clearly states that cooperation with other regions isa necessity.

Mr Bothuyne calls for better cooperation between the three regional employment services VDAB (Flanders), Forem (Wallonia) and Actiris (Brussels-Capital Region). The East Flemish Christian democrat adds that VDAB should pass on more vacancies for bottleneck jobs to its counterparts at Forem.

BELGA/VAN ASSCHE

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