Low-level bureaucracy tops Belgian job poll

28 April 2005

BRUSSELS – Working as a low-level bureaucrat for the state is Belgium’s single most popular job, new official figures have confirmed.

A report by the national institute for statistics has revealed that jobs such ushers, clerks and messengers in public administration employ more people than anywhere else.

Together with similar posts in the private sector, this type of job employs more than 300,000 workers in Belgium.

In third place comes sales staff in shops.

The top three types of job employ many more women than men, with 60 percent of office workers being female and 76.6 percent of shop staff.

After the top three jobs, the most popular professions are secondary school teachers, nurses, drivers, foremen and women, specialist sales staff, cleaners and warehouse staff.

Further down the scale, secretaries occupy 13th place, with 66,980 employees and Belgium’s 54237 primary school teachers are in 18th position.

Waiters are in 20th place, with doctors in 30th place with 39,188, just ahead of 38,807 company bosses.

Farmers follow in 36th position, with 34,142 employed in the agriculture sector, and 20,580 police officers take up 57th position.

The survey also showed that certain professions are still bastions of sexism.

Within the large pool of primary school teachers, only one percent are men and 98 percent of creche staff are also female.

The same trend can been seen in secretarial staff, where 94.7 percent are female, pharmacy assistants, where 92 percent are women and nurses and hairdressers where 88 and 81 percent are female.

Typically masculine jobs still include construction work, where only one percent are women.

However, certain professions have managed to buck the sexist trend since the 1960s.

These include accountancy, where the number of women has risen from 26 percent to 70 percent.

The same phenomenon applies to interpreters and pharmacists.

Although the police force still only has 15 percent women, in the 1960s there were practically none.

Subject: Belgian news