Across the OECD, policy makers are grappling with a critical question: how to create jobs? The recent financial crisis and economic downturn has had serious consequences across most OECD countries, with rising unemployment rates and jobs being lost across many sectors. Indeed, for some countries, the effects of the downturn are continuing, if not amplifying. Shrinking public budgets in some countries also mean that policy makers must now do more with less. In this context, it is necessary to think laterally about how actions in one area, such as employment and training, can have simultaneous benefits in others, such as creating new jobs and better supporting labour market inclusion.

Flanders emerged from the global financial crisis in a relatively healthy position with stable unemployment levels compared to the OECD average. However, certain groups of individuals, such as youth and older workers face significant barriers to successful labour force participation. Creating quality jobs and developing relevant skills will be an important priority to continue growing the economy.

The Local Job Creation project involves a series of country reviews in Australia, Belgium (Flanders), Canada (Ontario and Quebec), Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy (Autonomous Province of Trento), Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States (California and Michigan). The key stages of each review are summarised in .

The Belgian economy remained relatively resilient through the recent economic crisis. In particular, Flanders has one of the lowest unemployment rates across the three main regions in the country. However, unemployment among youth remains stubbornly high and will be a significant policy challenge moving forward. This chapter provides an overview of the employment and skills system in Flanders and describes the key institutional actors at the national, regional, and local level.

To better understand the role of the local level in contributing to job creation and productivity, this review examined local activities in two Flemish regions: Antwerp; and Limburg. This chapter provides a labour market and economic overview of each region as well as the results from an OECD LEED statistical tool which looks at the relationship between skills supply and demand at the sub-national level.

This chapter highlights findings from the Local Job Creation Dashboard in Flanders. The findings are discussed through the four thematic areas of the OECD review: 1) better aligning policies and programmes to local employment development; 2) adding value through skills; 3) targeting policy to local employment sectors and investing in quality jobs; and 4) being inclusive.

Stimulating job creation at the local level requires integrated actions across employment, training and economic development portfolios. Co-ordinated place-based policies can help workers find suitable jobs, while also contributing to demand by stimulating productivity. This requires flexible policy management frameworks, information, and integrated partnerships which leverage the efforts of local stakeholders. This chapter outlines the key recommendations emerging from the OECD review of local job creation policies in Flanders, Belgium.