Netherlands to count 1.2 million migrant workers by 2030

If the current trend continues, the Netherlands will have around 1.2 million migrant workers working here by 2030, De Telegraaf reports based on a study commissioned by the association of employment agencies EBU. 

The country counted 750,000 migrant workers at the end of 2019. ABU expects that the number will only increase due to the increasing staff shortages in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is facing staff shortages in almost all sectors of its economy. Getting more workers from abroad may be a solution to that. 

Earlier this month, Minister Karien van Gennip of Social Affairs and Employment said that the Dutch economy can't function without migrant workers. "I can't imagine that we can run the economy without them," she said.

Van Gennip is thinking about maybe recruiting young people from France and Spain, where there is a high youth unemployment rate, to come work in the Netherlands' hospitality and horticulture industries.