SALARY SURVEY 2013 - Robert Walters Singapore

The Belgium jobs market provedrelatively resilient to the uncertainglobal economic environment,with employers in the countryrecruiting for both permanentand interim vacancies throughout2012. Despite this, we did notsee any significant changesin salary levels and recruitmentprocesses lengthened fromSeptember onwards.Organisations in the banking andfinancial services sectors wereparticularly cautious in 2012with some of these companiesdownsizing their workforces.However, job levels were relativelyhigh in the insurance sector andshortages were evident for certainprofessionals, including actuariesand solvency specialists.Outside of financial services,there was also demand forfinancial controllers and treasuryprofessionals at the 5-10 years’experience level – especiallyfrom multinationals inmanufacturing, technologyand service industries duringthe first half of the year. Forthe majority of finance roles inBelgium, trilingual professionalswere sought-after.Although employers continuedto hire contractors and temporarystaff, demand for theseprofessionals declined in2012 with official statisticsfrom Federgon (the federationof employment partners inBelgium) showing temporary joblevels were down almost 7%on 2011. Despite this overridingtrend, student temporary workersbecame increasingly in demandfollowing the easing of legalrestrictions concerning theiremployability. These candidatesproved an attractive propositionfor cost-conscious businessesseeking extra resource.While the jobs market remainsdifficult to predict for 2013,many organisations will continueto operate with lean resourcesand we anticipate that the majorityof hiring will be on a replacementbasis.BELGIUMRobert Walters Global Salary Survey 2013 2012