Critical occupations in Brussels 2026: technical roles

Our roles on this list

These roles from our role profiles match a profession on the list. The name on the list is shown as the source prints it.

How Actiris draws up the Brussels list

Detection happens in two steps. First Actiris analyses the vacancies it received, for every role with at least 20 vacancies in the reference year. That statistical list is then validated or completed after consultations within Actiris (the Pôles Select) and outside it: employer federations, sector funds, the Pôles Formation Emploi and the reference centres.

Actiris published the 2026 edition on 1 July 2026: 103 roles. New entries include automotive technician (at vehicle inspection) and legal assistant; roles that left the list include financial analyst and seller of electrical appliances. Brussels Economy and Employment calls the list an annual update.

Fonction critique, pénurie and structural

For Actiris, a fonction critique is a role where vacancies take long to fill and where profiles that meet the requirements are scarce. For each role the list ticks one or more causes: too few workers (pénurie), candidates who fall short on experience, languages, driving licence or specific know how (qualitatif), or pay, hours, contract and workload that make the job less attractive (conditions de travail).

A role is called structurally critical when it was hard to fill several times over the past five years. The professions with a real shortage, the professions en pénurie, are a subset of the fonctions critiques: Brussels Economy and Employment publishes them as a separate list dated 1 July 2026. In our technical selection every role with the pénurie tick is also on that list.

What the status gives you as a job seeker in Brussels

In its 2026 catalogue Bruxelles Formation links each course to the professions that are hiring, including the fonctions critiques. Together with its partners it offers 22,031 training places for job seekers in 2026, on top of those of the EFP and of VDAB Brussel for people who want to train in Dutch.

If you follow a course by Bruxelles Formation, VDAB, Le Forem or ADG while on benefits, Actiris can grant you an exemption so you do not have to actively look for work during the course. On the Actiris page that exemption does not depend on the list, and Actiris warns that it does not guarantee your right to benefits: check that beforehand with your payment body.

What the list means when you hire in Brussels

Brussels Economy and Employment calls the list a strategic tool for guidance, training and employment, and it plays a role in economic migration: for a qualified foreign profile in a shortage profession there is a dedicated page on the work authorisation. The type of authorisation depends on the pay and on how long the assignment in Belgium lasts.