Belgium saw the number of hours of temporary work performed a decrease of 1.29% in March 2024 when compared to the same period a year ago, according to calendar-basis adjusted data from Federgon, the Belgian federation of staffing agencies.

This decline was the result of a decrease in activity of 0.35% in the blue-collar segment and 2.49% in the white-collar segment.  

On a monthly basis, March saw an increase of 0.39%. This increase was due to an improvement in both segments: The number of hours worked increased by 0.37% in the blue-collar segment and by 0.37% in the white-collar segment. 

Overall, the Federgon index reached 90.49 points in March 2024 compared to 90.13 points the month before.

Paul Verschueren, director of research and economic affairs, said, “Also in March, TAW activity is down compared to last year. However, compared to past months, this decline is rather limited. On a monthly basis, there is a slight growth. The next few months should reveal whether these figures signal that TAW activity is effectively bottoming out.”

Regional data found that Flanders recorded a 3.56% annual decline with a 6.80% fall in the white-collar segment and a 1.27% decline in the blue-collar segment.

In Wallonia, there was an increase of 3.74% year on year. The white-collar segment saw an increase of 7.52%, while the blue-collar segment recorded an improvement of 1.37%.

In Brussels, March annual figures recorded a marginal 0.36% uptick despite a 0.38% downturn in the white-collar segment. In the blue-collar segment, there was a 2.36% increase.

Meanwhile, monthly figures showed that Flanders recorded an increase of 0.64% with marginal upticks in the white-collar segment (0.67%) and the blue-collar segment (0.46%).

Wallonia reported an increase of 0.47% with gains in the white-collar segment (1.18%) but a fall in the blue-collar segment (-0.12%).

Federgon’s data also found that Brussels recorded a marginal fall of 0.73% on a monthly basis. There was a decrease in the white-collar segment of 2.36%. This decrease was offset by a more pronounced gain in the blue-collar segment of 4.97%.