Six in ten companies are planning to take crisis measures in 2010

Half of Belgian employers think 2010 will be a better year – economically speaking – than 2009. However, six out of ten companies still think that they will have to take crisis measures in 2010, such as a hiring stops and lay-offs. That is what 130 business leaders indicated in a recent survey by Jobat and Profacts.

Two thirds of the business leaders that participated in the research admit that they have felt the crisis in their company, but an overwhelming majority of them is convinced that within the next year business will be much better. Nevertheless, this renewed optimism doesn’t mean the end of the many painful anti-crisis measures that were taken in response to the economic crisis.  Almost six out of ten business leaders expect that they will have to take additional measures in 2010. Hiring stops, technical unemployment, more temporary contracts en further lay-offs are the most probable of such measures.

A quarter of the companies that completed the survey had to lay off employees in 2009. This year only 8 percent of companies expect that this will be the case. Most companies – about two thirds – actually expect that they will hire new employees; especially commercial, technical and engineering profiles.

One third of the companies expect that their turnover in 2010 will be higher than last year, on average by 7,6 percent. Most companies (54%) are expecting a status quo. The remaining 15 percent think that this year will be worse than last year and they expect a drop in turnover of 8,2 percent on average.

All results of this survey can be found on www.jobat.be/2010.