Rotterdam welfare recipients least likely to find work

Welfare recipients living in Rotterdam are the least likely to find work. Only 6 percent of Rotterdam welfare recipients found a job last year. This involves people who were on welfare in 2013 and found a job in 2014. Nearly 13 percent - more than 100 thousand people - of welfare recipients in Zoetermeer found a job last year, making Zoetermeer the leader among the major Dutch municipalities in terms of outflow from welfare for the fourth time in a row. This is according to figures released by Statistics Netherlands on Wednesday. An average of 8.3 percent of welfare recipients below retirement age across the Netherlands found work last year. This is an increase of 1 percent compared to the 7.3 percent of 2013, though the percentage was almost twice as high before the economic crisis in 2008. Last year showed the first increase in three years. The probability of finding a job from welfare decreases as the recipients age increases. Young welfare recipients found jobs more frequently - more than 20 percent of welfare recipients between the ages of 15 and 25 years found work last year and 15 percent of recipients between the ages of 25 and 35 years. Men are more likely to find work from welfare than women across all age groups. Last year an average of 11 percent of men left welfare benefits because they found a job, compared to 6 percent of women. The number of people on welfare benefits is still increasing. At the end of last year 434 thousand people below retirement age were receiving benefits, compared to 413 thousand people in 2013. In mid-2015 this number rose to 447 thousand people. This number has been increasing since the end of 2008.