The number of hours worked by temporary workers across Belgium increased by +12% during July 2014, compared with the same month last year, according to the latest figures from the Belgian Federation of Staffing Agencies (Federgon).

This strong increase follows year-on-year growth of +12.6% last month. The Belgian staffing industry has reported year-on-year growth every month so far this year. While relatively slow at the start of the year, +2.9% in January and +2% in February, there has been sustained improvement across the industry.

Compared with last year, the number of hours worked by blue-collar workers increased by +13.4%, while white-collar workers worked +10.2% more hours.

On a month-on-month basis, the total number of hours worked by temporary workers was unchanged in July compared with June. While the number of hours worked by blue-collar workers increased by +0.3%, month-on-month, there was a decrease of -0.5% in the number of hours worked by white-collar workers.

The Federgon Index reached 225.1 points in July, unchanged from June. The index is used as an indicator of the level of activity each month in comparison with the 100 index points in January 1995 when the index was launched.