Today the activity in Belgium comes to a stop. The three large unions mobilised its members to a general strike of 24 hours.

What are the costs of this strike?

© Photo Belga News Agency

Making an exact calculation is difficult, but the following numbers are an indication of the cost of today’s strike.

A first important number is the total value added on one day in Belgium. This is measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of one day: about 1.54 billion euro.

If we assume that about 500 000 people are on strike (which is comparable to the last general strike against the labour market reform in 2005) and the same amount couldn’t get to their work due to blocked roads and/or buildings, about 1 million people are not working today in Belgium. On a total working population of 4.5 million people, this equals 22%.

The GDP loss would be 319 million euro.

Luckily, 2012 is a leap year, which adds another 1.54 billion euro to the GDP because of the existence of February 29, compared to normal years. However, due to the strike today, the government sees this extra benefit decreased...

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