Unemployment recovery stalls out

The steady decrease of unemployment in the Netherlands has stalled out over the past three months. The unemployment figures for September were the same as in July and August. This is according to figures released by Statistics Netherlands on Thursday. A total of 607 thousand people were unemployed in the Netherlands in September. This amounts to 6.8 percent of the population. This figure is 4 thousand less than three months ago, but since then the number of unemployed has remained stable. The number of people in paid employment has also remained on the same level as in June. Up until June, the number of paid employees was steadily increasing. There are currently 12.7 million people of working age - between 15 and 75 years old - living in the Netherlands. In September, 65.4 percent of them, or 8,3 million people, had a paying job. 607 thousand were unemployed. The remaining 3.8 million people in that age group were also not working, but weren't actively looking for a job. Unemployment among young people has increased over the past three months. The youth unemployment rate is currently at 11.5 percent, compared to 11.1 percent three months ago. 161 thousand people between the ages of 15 and 25 years old are currently unemployed. The youth unemployment has been increasing since April, but is still lower than in September last year - 12.0 percent.