In French-speaking Belgium there were almost 5,000 vacancies in the kitchen trade in 2022. The Horeca sector (for hotels, restaurants and cafés) can no longer find qualified staff. The phenomenon is new in gastronomy.

In question: painful hours, job insecurity, low wages… Many workers saw this as factories closed during the health crisis and gave up their apron to change jobs. Restaurants today have to adapt.

>> Hear the report by Julien Conti, Julien Bader and Erik Dagonnier:

Labor shortages are significant in Canada. It’s particularly affecting sectors like technology, and to cope, companies need to compete with their imaginations.

Photo-editing software company Médiaclip can’t match the staggering salaries of the giants, but it does stand out in other ways. She bought a chalet on the edge of a lake more than two hours from Montreal so her employees could come to work or spend time there on weekends.

>> Listen to Alexis Gacon’s report:

Côte d’Ivoire is hit hard by rising commodity prices. Since the coronavirus health crisis and the war in Ukraine, Ivorians have had a hard time getting supplies.

Faced with the recurring scarcity of certain products such as wheat, initiatives to promote local products such as cassava or millet are springing up to cope with the vagaries of international markets.

>> Listen to Bineta Diagne’s report:

Like other European countries, France was hit by an unprecedented drought this summer. In less than 50 years, water consumption per person per day has increased from 106 to 150 liters. Daily use and the dramatic effects of global warming have experts worrying that these episodes will become even more common in the future.

How to avoid this water shortage? There are solutions, but they are still little used in France.

>> Listen to the report by Mariam El Kurdi and Laurent Macchietti:

Like its European neighbors, Switzerland fears power shortages as some electricity is imported, particularly from France and Germany. It therefore wants to expand its domestic production, focusing in particular on hydroelectric power.

The country nicknamed the “Water Tower of Europe” now has more than 2,000 power plants along waterways or in the heart of the Alps. A number that is likely to rise as the Swiss Confederation looks to expand production. Projects for new dams in the Alps are under discussion.

>> Listen to Valentin Emery’s report: