Peter van der Hallen graduated in Social Sciences, specialisation Labour Market, at the Catholic University of Louvain in 1979. He was assistant at the Sociology Faculty of the Catholic University of Leuven from 1979 to 1985. In 1985 he became research director, head of the Work and Organisation research sector at the Higher Institute for Labour Studies, Catholic University of Leuven (Hoger Instituut voor de Arbeid, K.U.Leuven): he conducted research on employment and unemployment, work and organisation, quality of labour, trade union membership, workers representation rights and collective labour relations in companies. Since 1995 he was appointed coordinator of the Steunpunt Werkgelegenheid, Arbeid en Vorming (Resource Center for Labour Market Research, K.U.Leuven). This Resource Center operates as an inter-university cooperative between research groups attached to the Catholic University of Leuven, the University of Gent, the University of Antwerp and the Independent University of Brussels. It has specialised in the scientific analysis of statistics from administrative sources relating to the labour market (data from the VT, the LFS, RVA, RSZ, etc.). On behalf of the Flemish Government, it publishes every year a ‘Yearbook on the Flemish Labour market’ and a scientific quarterly ‘Over.Werk’ with articles on recent labour market research.