Labor market tension decreasing as businesses give up on vacancies

The Dutch labor market became slightly less tight in the second quarter, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. Both the number of vacancies and the number of unemployed people decreased, but the fall in vacancies was greater than that of unemployed people.

A tight labor market is defined as the number of jobs being higher than the number of job seekers. In the previous quarter, there were 108 vacancies per 100 unemployed people. According to CBS, the labor market is still tight, but less so than in the first quarter of this year, when there were 110 vacancies per 100 unemployed people.

The number of vacancies decreased to 401,000 at the end of June, around 10,000 fewer than at the end of March. This number still increased in the first quarter. With the exception of that period, the number of vacancies has been decreasing almost continuously for two years now, CBS said. The number of vacancies decreased in the hospitality and trade industries, although the latter sector still had the most jobs available. Business services, public administration, and healthcare still saw an increase in vacancies.

In April, May, and June, the number of unemployed people fell to 370,000, around 3,000 fewer than in the first three months of the year. The percentage of people without paid work who have recently looked for work and are available to start immediately fell slightly last quarter from 3.7 to 3.6 percent. According to CBS, that is because the number of unemployed people who found work was greater than the number of people who became unemployed. Unemployment did rise slightly among young people under the age of 25.

It seems that employers prefer to hire people with permanent contracts rather than offer them flexible ones. According to CBS, the number of employees with a permanent contract rose by 26,000 to 5.5 million last quarter. The number of flexible workers fell by 25,000 to 2.7 million. Furthermore, 14,000 self-employed people were added, bringing the total to 1.6 million.