Will Labour Shortages and Skills Mismatches Throw Sand in the Gears of the Green Transition in Belgium?

Mikkel Barslund, Wouter Gelade and Geoffrey Minne

Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, 2026, issue 550, 45-69

Abstract: [eng] This article aims to identify green shortage occupations, to characterise people who transition into these occupations, and to explore the factors that facilitate or hinder transitions into green occupations, focusing on the skills required to exercise these occupations. By linking Belgian Labour Force Survey data with international (O*NET) green job definitions and regional lists of occupations in shortage, we examine green shortage occupations, the workers who transition into them, and the role of skills and skill distances in facilitating or hindering these transitions. We find that half of green employment falls into shortage occupations. Technical and resource management skills are important drivers of transitions into green shortage jobs. Skill mismatches for green shortage jobs are large, yet workers who move into green shortage jobs experience less skill disruption than expected.

Date: 2026
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.insee.fr/en/statistiques/fichier/90667 ... arslund-et-al_EN.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Will Labour Shortages and Skills Mismatches Throw Sand in the Gears of the Green Transition in Belgium? (2026)
Working Paper: Will labour shortages and skills mismatches throw sand in the gears of the green transition in Belgium? (2024)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nse:ecosta:ecostat_2026_550_3

DOI: 10.24187/ecostat.2026.550.2147

Access Statistics for this article

Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics is currently edited by Dominique Goux

More articles in Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics from Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Veronique Egloff ().