Brussels business profile

Working in Brussels

Although Brussels accounts for only 0.5% of Belgium's surface area and has a population of less than one million, the region generates 15% of the nation's Gross National Product. However, Brussels' unemployment level at 15% remains high. The national level is not much better, standing at 12%. This might be explained by the fact that two thirds of Belgium's forty thousand asylum seekers live in Brussels and this population has been entitled to seek work. A further explanation rests on the nature of employment available in Brussels, which relies on a highly skilled, technically proficient and multi-lingual workforce. In this environment, the less skilled find it difficult to fit in.

Most major Belgian companies are based in Brussels, including the Glaverbel, Solvay and SN Brussels Airlines . 'Capital' of the European Union, Brussels also plays host to NATO. The presence of these international organisations, combined with Brussels' geographic location at the heart of Europe, excellent transport infrastructure, highly trained multi-lingual workforce and favourable fiscal regimes, draws nearly two thousand foreign companies to Brussels, including one thousand four hundred American companies and over a thousand international associations. The presence of some sixty foreign banks has contributed to making Brussels the world's seventh biggest financial market. Foreign companies with a presence in the city include AT&T, IBM, Sony, Toyota, Procter & Gamble , Hewlett Packard , Volkswagen and Price Waterhouse-Coopers .

The tertiary sector accounts for nearly eighty percent of all jobs - in various fields such as banking and financial services, tourism and transport. Nonetheless, Brussels remains the nation's most important industrial centre except for Antwerp. Industry is increasingly specialised in high-tech sectors and accounts for 15% of employment.