Strong economic growth, lower unemployment expected for Amsterdam region

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Region developed strongly after the financial crisis and will continue to do so in the coming years, according to the Economic Outlook Metropolitan Region Amsterdam 2018 that the city of Amsterdam published on Wednesday. The city attributes the region's success to its "diverse and open economy in which both large and small companies can grow".

The the expected economic growth for the region, which consists of 33 municipalities and around 2.5 million inhabitants, is 3.7 percent for this year and 3.2 percent for next year - 0.5 percent higher than that of the rest of the Netherlands. With these figures the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region is one of the five strongest growing metropolitan regions in Europe, along with London, Stockholm, Warsaw and Prague

Unemployment in the region is expected to drop from 4.7 percent last year to 4 percent this year and 3.6 percent in 2019. The decline in unemployment is most noticeable among people with a low- and secondary level education. Employment is expected to grow by 2.6 percent in 2018 and 2.1 percent in 2019. With that unemployment in the region is back to pre-crisis levels.

"Construction, healthcare and ICT are hoping for good staff and at the same time too many people are unemployed. By retraining and training in companies more people can be helped to a job", Economic Affairs alderman Udo Kock said. "The Amsterdam region is working together with companies, ROCs and higher professional education on a better match between supply and demand, for example in House of Skills in which career programs are developed."