What Skills Do Belgian Employers Actually Ask For? Real Data from Job Ads

If you are job hunting in Belgium, knowing which skills appear most in job ads gives you a concrete target. The figures below come from NewLuxJob's own job-board data, drawn from live Belgian job postings across 23 categories. These are counts of what employers are already writing into their requirements - not predictions.

Professional and Office Roles

In accounting and audit (749 postings), Tax knowledge leads at 55%, followed by Auditing at 39% and Excel at 35%. SAP appears in 14% of ads and VAT in 10%.

Finance roles (515 postings) show a similar shape. Budgeting tops the list at 56%, with Excel at 44%, Controlling at 38%, and Forecasting at 36%. SAP and Power BI each appear in 14% and 12% of ads respectively.

Consultant ads (342 postings) put Strategy at 46% and Stakeholder Management at 42%. SAP comes up in 20% of postings and Project Management in 19%, with Excel at 17%.

Manager roles (590 postings) ask for Budgeting (39%), Stakeholder Management (38%), Strategy (26%), KPI (24%), and Project Management (23%).

HR recruiters (505 postings) are almost universally expected to have Recruiting on their CV - it appears in 98% of ads. Onboarding comes next at 20%, followed by LinkedIn at 12%.

Technical Trades and Engineering

Engineering ads (412 postings) list PLC at 31%, AutoCAD at 26%, and CAD at 21%. Project Management appears in 15% of ads and SolidWorks in 14%.

For electricians (160 postings), Installation is listed in 89% of ads. Maintenance appears in 24%, Wiring in 11%, and Troubleshooting in 10%.

Mechanics (698 postings) show Diagnostics and Maintenance tied at 48%, with Automotive at 25%, Repair at 19%, and Hydraulics at 17%.

Welding and metalwork (1091 postings) is one of the largest categories in this data. Welding appears in 85% of ads, TIG/WIG in 42%, MIG/MAG in 25%, Assembly in 23%, and Metal Fabrication in 22%.

Construction trades (208 postings) lead with the general Construction skill at 80%, followed by Renovation at 23%, Masonry at 18%, and Carpentry at 14%.

Digital and Data Roles

Software developers (428 postings) are most often asked for .NET (36%), Agile/Scrum (33%), SQL (33%), and Java (32%). Angular and Azure each appear in 25% of ads.

Data analysts (407 postings) are expected to know SQL (47%), Power BI (42%), and Excel (41%). Python comes up in 24% of postings and ETL in 17%.

Marketing roles (193 postings) centre on Content skills (70%), Social Media (38%), SEO (27%), and Adobe tools (26%). CRM appears in 19% of ads and Google Analytics in 17%.

Service, Care, and Hospitality

Customer support (816 postings) lists Communication in 85% of ads. CRM appears in 17%, Troubleshooting in 11%, and English in 7%.

Nurse and healthcare ads (259 postings) list Nursing in 80% of postings, Geriatric Care in 10%, Hygiene in 9%, and Documentation in 7%.

For cook and chef positions (201 postings), Kitchen skills are in 68% of ads, HACCP in 43%, Mise en Place in 21%, and Hygiene in 20%.

Waiter and hospitality roles (493 postings) ask for Hospitality (77%) and Service (57%) most often. Cocktails appear in 5% of ads, with Barista and HACCP each at 4%.

Security ads (209 postings) prominently list Reporting at 74% and CCTV at 24%.

Browse the Full Skill Data by Category

NewLuxJob publishes the complete skill frequency breakdown for each job category on its Belgium careers pages. You can check roles including accountant-auditor, software developer, data analyst, nurse-healthcare, mechanic, welder-metalwork, and others to see what Belgian employers are currently asking for in your field.