Rate of women in workforce levels off

According to figures from Statistics Netherlands, the increase of women in the labor market has leveled off after the significant increase between 1998 and 2013. In 2013 there was a slight decrease. In the first three quarters of 2014 the employment rate for women hardly changed.

This development is mainly due to the fact that more women withdraw from the labor market than enter into it. Studies and illness are often used as reasons to refrain from paid work.

In 2013 the gross labor participation among women was 65.4 percent, meaning that nearly two thirds of all women aged 15 to 65 were active in the labor market. In 1998 this was 52.5 percent. The labor participation among men in 2013 was 78.7 percent, only slightly higher than in 1998.