Unemployment benefits, dismissal requests on the rise

The number of unemployment benefits and dismissal applications increased in the first half of this year. This was reported by benefits agency UWV, which expects the number of benefits to increase further during the rest of the year.

The number of unemployment benefits was 167,800 at the end of June 2024. This was around 7,000 more than at the end of December 2023, a rise of 4.4 percent. The rise mainly occurred in January and February because many contracts expire at the end of the year. The ‘end-of-year effect’ was more substantial than usual in 2024. After March, there was only a slight increase in the number of benefits in May.

The average weekly unemployment benefit inflow was higher each month in 2024 than in 2023. In total, 15,600 more new unemployment benefits were issued than in the same period last year.

UWV thinks that the increase in the number of unemployment benefits and applications for dismissal fits in with the image of an economy struggling. Statistics Netherlands reported that there were 40 percent more bankruptcies than in the same period last year.

The number of dismissal applications was back at the level of the years before the coronavirus pandemic at the start of 2022. However, due to the war in Ukraine, which started in February 2022, companies had to deal with high energy bills, and the number of dismissal applications rose again.

There was a peak in January 2024, with over 3,700 dismissal applications. The number of employers who applied for collective dismissal at the UWV increased by 44 percent in the first six months of this year.

In February, the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis predicted that the economy would grow slightly in 2024. However, the UWV expects unemployment benefits to increase somewhat faster in the second half of this year than in the first six months.