Some 4% of Belgians work for 50 hours or more every week.
A new report published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says that both overworking and insecurity on the labour market are relatively low in Belgium.
In its report How’s Life? 2017, the OECD compares a series of figures and data from 35 countries. A multitude of aspects are taken into account such as personal security, income and health, jobs and income, work-life balance, education, social networks, environment and other factors.
The OECD says that there are still significant inequalities in member countries as regards sex, gender, level of education and life expectancy. The organisation explains, “Some aspects of daily life have made significant progress since 2005, but there are still too many people who are not making the most of the advantages of progress within many OECD countries.”
Compared to other countries, Belgium is performing well and is above the average for OECD countries. Both household net incomes and net wealth brought Belgium into the top three OECD countries in 2014 and 2015. The employment rate was 62% in 2016 or 6% less than the average in OECD countries. Moreover, as indicated, overworking and insecurity on the job market are relatively low in Belgium.
Belgium also has a good score concerning the work-life balance. Hardly 4% of Belgians are working 50 hours or more per week. The environmental news is also better. Air quality has improved by 5% since 2005, and is closer to the average for OECD countries.
Lastly, the OECD report estimates that some 17% of the current Belgian population were born in another country, a figure above the OECD average (13%).
