Expatica :European and Belgian job markets face job mismatch

[Politics.be]

According to simulations made by Randstad International, about 35 million jobs in Europe will remain vacant by 2050. In its report 'Into the Gap', the temping group predicts that 16% of the European working population will not possess the necessary skills sought by employers. As this mismatch on the job market is already posing a problem for many European countries, including Belgium, the situation can only deteriorate. Three in five vacancies in Europe are currently filled by the best suited candidates, Randstad maintains. That leaves two in five that are mismatched, which implies that 18% of all European employees are overqualified for their particular job and that 19% work at a higher level than their training allows. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the lowly schooled workers active in production jobs are the first to suffer job losses due to the crisis or transition from an industry-based to a knowledge-based economic, or because their jobs have changed to such an extent that they can no longer perform their tasks effectively. A warehouse employee, for example, will no longer be simply a shelf packer but will also require computer skills. Similarly routine jobs will increasingly be partly automated. Not all lowly skilled jobs will disappear, however. Positions for cleaners and shop assistants will remain, but in future they will have to fight for a decent wage. The recent report shows that the middle classes will be affected even more severely as the number of available jobs for them will diminish faster than those taken up by less qualified workers. In practice they will then be forced to accept jobs for which they are over- or under-qualified.

In Belgium this discrepancy between supply and demand has caused difficulties for the more lowly skilled for quite some time, but now even the more highly skilled are increasingly affected. The Randstad International report does not make any predictions for individual EU member states as its report is focused on Europe as a whole.
Research conducted by Luc Sels, a professor at the Louvain University, indicates that about 500 000 employees in the 50+ age group will leave the Belgian job market between 2010 and 2015, as the post-war baby boomers reach a pensionable age. The implications for the Flemish job market are a ‘replacement rate’ of 35%. Candidates for some jobs, such as engineers, nursing staff and technicians, will be lacking. Previously some employers’ organisations have repeatedly called for a better match between training and the job market.

Bron: politics.be