OECD pushes targeted immigration policy and training to improve Dutch labor shortage

The Dutch government should do a better job of considering the shortages in the labor market when crafting and adjusting its immigration policy. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) thinks this could be a solution for the shortage of available personnel. This is partly due to the advancing age of the population and will therefore become even worse in the future. The Netherlands can also improve in other areas.

At the moment, if companies want to attract people from outside the European Union, they must first demonstrate that they have looked within the European Economic Area and Switzerland, but could not find anyone there. This requirement should be abolished for sectors where there is a great shortage, such as technical professions related to the energy transition. There is also no immigration program that focuses on moderately-skilled people, when many of them are needed.

To achieve the government's energy targets for 2030, another 28,000 technical jobs still need to be filled. That is more than the total number of employees in the energy sector at the moment, according to the think tank.

Education and training policies should also pay more attention to sectors with shortages. In any case, at least 1.5 billion euros is insufficiently spent on training every year. The OECD also denounced the government's STAP Budget. Not enough money was allocated to the program, meant to give people a better foothold on the job market, the OECD said. Additionally, priority was not given to courses that were immediately needed on the labor market, and too little was invested in joint financing with employers.

Furthermore, vocational education does not attract enough students, despite the fact that they can learn professions and skills for which there is a great demand. The OECD said it saw one of the causes as the fact that there are too many different tracks in pre-vocational secondary education. The think tank recommends, among other things, that schools be given the chance to afford students the opportunity to follow parts of more theoretical and vocational education.

Finally, the Dutch must also work more hours, the OECD said. But that is related to the lack of availability of childcare, which is also expensive. The OECD recognized that reforming childcare rules is complex. By making it more accessible, many more job vacancies will need to be filled in that sector, and the labor market tightness will only increase in the short term. The allowance one receives for childcare now also depends on the number of hours they work. Dropping that link will not encourage people to work more, the OECD said.