Assessment of policies in place to meet the relevant headline targets

Assessment of policies in place to meet the relevant headline targets

1.8Employment

The most relevant parts of the 2015 NRP for Belgium,²¹ concerning employment are especially recommendation 3 (about older workers) and recommendation 4 (about the labour market). These show how to think about structural reform measures in order to:

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  prolong career duration
  
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  reform the unemployment system
  
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  reform the pensions
  
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  rationalize the existing target group measures
  
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  focus on the under 24-year olds, the over 55s and workers with labour disabilities
  

We can observe that the Federal Government and the different regional authorities are organising a close follow up and a lot of concrete actions to achieve the 2020 employment level target.

In a next step these statistics are specified for ‘under represented groups’, and persons with a ‘work disability’ are seen as one of the specific target groups.

There is also attention to persons with disabilities in the statistics about those with ‘long term unemployment: … The Joint Employment Report of the EU warns for the rise in long-term unemployment. In the last year, the share of the long-term unemployed in the total unemployed population rose further from 45.3% to 48.7% in 2013. The Flemish Region scores better than the EU average with 32.8%, and is also better than the Brussels Capital Region (56.7%) and the Walloon Region (51.6%). Nevertheless 1 in 3 of the Flemish unemployed have been out of work for longer than 2 years. In 2014, the Flemish Region had an average of 60,522 unemployed who were out of work for longer than 2 years and thus could, theoretically satisfy the conditions for work experience. On average, 56% of the long-term unemployed are low-skilled. 53% is older than 50, 24% is immigrant and 26% has a work handicap (NRP, page 53).

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  Under the European Social Fund’s programme 2014-2020, the Governments of the Walloon Region and of the French Community have approved in February 2015 the projects in the first call. Within this framework, 250 million € has been allocated to the improved accessibility of measures which aim at inclusion, at guiding job seekers or at combat-ting discrimination in the labour market. Among the projects supported are: accompanying services for migrants towards socio-professional integration, training of persons with disabilities, (pre)training of job seekers, literacy,... (NRP, page 32 and page 108).
  
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  To achieve the ambitious objective of an employment level of 76% by 2020, the Government of Flanders is first investing in filling jobs via a Flemish target group policy. Since we assume a federal structural linear reduction in the costs of labour, we are stimulating the recruitment and retention in work of certain target groups with a greater distance to the labour market. To increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the target group policy, the number of measures are restricted to three target groups, namely the youth, people above the age of 55 and persons with a labour handicap. This way we create extra room for reducing the wage costs of these target groups and thus offer them more chances on the labour market. This reform is part of the Job Pact that is being developed by the Government of Flanders and the social partners. A first concept note was approved by the Government of Flanders on 23/01/2015 (NRP, page 52).
  
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  The Government of Flanders also wishes to remove a number of obstacles to recruitment with new targets for colleagues with a migrant background, women in top and middle management and colleagues with a handicap. The actions for a diversified staffing policy is part of the new equal opportunities and diversity plan that was approved by the Government of Flanders on 30/01/2015 (NRP, page 54).
  
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  The Government of Flanders is planning to provide wage subsidies for employers with regard to 3 target groups: young people, people over 55 years old and persons with a disability. The measure will enhance employment opportunities for vulnerable groups (NRP, page 153).
  
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  On the demand side, the recruitment of job seekers will be promoted through a rationalization of the existing target group measures. The transfer of competences for these measures to the regions will be used by them to focus on the most relevant groups, thereby reducing the number of reductions and rendering them more transparent and more efficient. The Flemish Region chose to focus on the minus-24-year-olds, the over-55s and workers with labour disabilities (NRP, page 10).
  
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  From April 2015 on the Flemish Government has a new Decree (Maatwerk-Decree) to integrate different measures for ‘those with a large distance from the labour market’:
  

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  Some can get a ‘training on the job’
  
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  In some cases someone can get a wage subsidy
  
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  Some can get reasonable accommodations
  
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  Some can get a specific job placement in a social economy firm or sheltered work firm (both called ‘maatwerk’companies now)