Less than one-fifth of Flemish unemployed have a good chance of finding work quickly

Of the more than 213,000 unemployed jobseekers in Flanders, only 18 per cent have a chance of more than 50 per cent of finding work within six months. That shows an AI model used by the Flemish employment agency VDAB to analyse the profiles of the jobseekers.

At the end of August, exactly 213,429 unemployed jobseekers were registered with the VDAB. The employment agency now investigated how quickly they can find work.

To do so, the VDAB took the evaluation of mediators and the jobseeker's need for services into account. In addition, an AI model also assessed the chances of the jobseeker to find work within six months. This model took many factors into account, such as age, work experience, current and previous unemployment periods, desired professions, language skills, etc.

This way, the VDAB calculated that only 18 per cent of the unemployed jobseekers have a chance of more than 50 per cent of finding work within six months. For more than half - 56 per cent - the chance of finding work within six months is estimated at less than 35 per cent. On top of that, people in that group may also suffer from “health or welfare problems that need to be improved before steps towards work can be taken,” stated the VDAB.

For the remaining quarter of jobseekers, the assessment is that they have an average chance of finding work soon.

The report also shows that the job-seeking rate was 6.7 per cent in August. This puts the ratio of unemployed jobseekers in Flanders to the Flemish working population almost as high as a year earlier, when it was 6.6 per cent.

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