Welder shortage in Belgium: figures and solutions

Ask a fabrication shop manager what is holding back growth: the answer is rarely “orders”. It is almost always “welders”. The trade is among the hardest profiles to recruit in Belgium, and the situation is not improving.

What the figures say

At European level, the European Welding Federation (EWF) estimates that around 300,000 qualified welders are missing. The gap is widening as the generations trained in the 1970s and 1980s retire, while demand remains strong in metal construction, energy, machinery and equipment.

In Belgium, the three regional employment services publish a yearly list of the occupations employers struggle to fill:

in Wallonia, Le Forem has listed welders among critical functions and shortage occupations for many years;
in Flanders, VDAB includes the trade among its knelpuntberoepen (shortage occupations);
in Brussels, Actiris also publishes its list of critical functions, which includes technical industrial trades.

These lists do not give an exact number of vacancies, but they confirm a lasting trend: welder vacancies stay open for a long time, and many are never filled.

Why welders are in short supply

The shortage has several causes that reinforce each other:

Demographics. A large share of experienced welders are nearing retirement. Their know-how, built up over decades, cannot be passed on in a few months.
Training. Becoming a qualified welder, able to pass EN ISO 9606-1 qualifications across several positions and processes, takes time and practice.
The image of the trade. Heat, fumes, physical work: welding suffers from an unappealing image among young people, even though conditions have improved considerably.
Competition between sectors. Large construction projects and heavy industry attract the best profiles, at the expense of small workshops.

What the shortage costs workshops

For an SME of 5 to 50 people, the consequence is very concrete: orders turned down, lead times slipping, overloaded welders, and a workshop manager who spends their time juggling emergencies. Small batches of simple parts, barely profitable by hand, are often the first to be sacrificed.

It is also a risk for the local industrial fabric: parts a workshop can no longer produce go to a supplier further away, sometimes outside Europe.

Five levers for companies

1. Train in-house

Le Forem training centres, IFAPME, technical schools and, in Flanders, VDAB-supported courses make it possible to train new welders. It is essential, but slow: it takes several months before a new recruit is autonomous on demanding parts.

2. Rethink part design

A part designed to be easy to weld (tabs and slots, accessible welds, throats sized to what is actually needed) takes less welder time. Our STEP preparation guide brings these rules together.

3. Subcontract small repeat batches

Handing simple, repetitive parts to a subcontractor frees welders for the work where their skill makes the difference. That is the idea behind our custom welded parts offer.

4. Automate the arc

Welding cobots have made automation accessible. They are effective on long runs, but leave preparation, tacking and programming to the welder. We explain their limits in why a welding robot does not pay off on small batches.

5. Automate the preparation too

That is the path we are exploring: a robotic cell that starts from the 3D file, assembles the components, tacks them and welds them. The aim is not to replace welders, who are already scarce, but to produce the parts nobody has the hands to make any more.

Key takeaways

The welder shortage is not a temporary dip: it stems from demographics and the time it takes to train. The workshops that cope combine several levers: training, better design, subcontracting what can be subcontracted and automating where the machine really pays off. For the public support that can accompany these choices, read our article on grants for automating a workshop in Wallonia and Flanders.