Biggest employment growth in 3.5 years; vacancies also rising

According to Statistic Netherlands, employment increased further in the 4th quarter of 2014 with the largest increase in 3.5 years. The number of vacancies also continues to increase. This means that the situation in the labor market further improved during 2014. Employment increased by 42 thousand jobs in the fourth quarter of last year, the largest increase in 3.5 years. The 2nd quarter of 2014 showed the first slight increase in the number of jobs after more than two years of job losses. Employment growth picked up further during the course of 2014. In the 2nd quarter there was an increase of 15 thousand jobs, 22 thousand in the 3rd quarter and finally 42 thousand in the last. Because of the improving employment, the number of jobs in the 4th quarter amounted to 9.8 million. That is 64 thousand more jobs than the previous year, but still 100 thousand less than at the end of 2008. At the end of last year there were 119 thousand vacancies in the Netherlands, 6 thousand more than the previous quarter. Compared with  2013 there was an increase of 22 thousand vacancies. The number of vacancies has been increasing for the last year and a half. Despite this the number of vacancies is not even half of what it was in 2007 and 2008. Despite the increase in employment and vacancies, the unemployment rate remained virtually unchanged. There were 633 thousand unemployed people in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 2014, 2 thousand less than in the previous quarter and more than 30 thousand less than in the same period in 2013.