Lens, Dries
Posted work: what is its economic importance in Belgium?
- 2023.
90
This article discusses the economic importance of posting mobility for the Belgian labour market. Using microdata from LIMOSA posting data, which has recently been integrated into the Crossroads Bank for Social Security, we estimate the volume of labour brought about by posting. The posting phenomenon has grown in importance over the years. By 2020, 212,000 posted workers entered Belgium to deliver temporary services. The 212,000 workers that were posted to Belgium in 2020 accounted for 105,000 full-time equivalents and, hence, accounted for around 3.2% of the total group of workers employed in Belgium. Considerable variation exists in the economic significance of posted work across different economic sectors. The construction sector takes up the largest share with 25% of total employment in 2020. The construction sector is closely followed by the transport sector, where posted workers represented about 23% of the total labour volume in 2020. The results show that posting has become fully part of the business model in many sectors of the Belgian economy, with a strong dependence on posted workers in certain sectors. We discuss the reasons behind this significant use of posted workers.