2021 was a recovery year with activity growth of some 6 percent. For 2022, industry federation Agoria is counting on 4 percent growth.
Last year, the technology sector reached its original pre-pandemic level, according to Agoria. Partick Slaets, CEO of Agoria, explains to Belga: “That’s good news and we didn’t expect that. But had we not had corona, we would now be at an activity level that was 2 to 3 percent higher.”
Agoria notes rising activity in a survey of its members across all subsectors, with the exception of the auto industry. The latter is most affected by the global chip shortage and reduced demand for cars during the pandemic.
Investment also increases by 4.5 percent to 4.2 billion euros in 2022. Last year there was growth of 2.3 percent to 4 billion euros. The growth is mainly in the development of new services and products and the business cycle.
Growth goes hand in hand with increased employment. Today, the technology sector employs 320,000 people. By 2022, 7,000 people should be added. Last year, 8,000 additional jobs were filled.
Key barriers
Despite all the good news, Agoria stresses that there are significant obstacles. The biggest problem is the supply chain, which inhibits business growth. Another pain point is the labor market shortage. Today there are about 21,000 job openings.
Finally, the competitiveness and labor cost handicap due to high inflation and automatic indexation of wages in Belgium is affecting the sector.
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