More unemployed people than vacancies in Netherlands for first time in 4 years
For the first time in four years, there were more unemployed people than open vacancies in the Netherlands in the third quarter. Due to a decrease in vacancies and an increase in unemployment, the tension on the labor market has decreased. For every 100 unemployed persons, there were 97 vacancies, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported.
The number of vacancies decreased by 2,000 in the third quarter to 387,000, while the number of unemployed people increased by 13,000 to 399,000. Most of them, 84 percent, have been unemployed for less than a year.
The number of vacancies has been slowly decreasing almost every quarter for three years, more due to employers turning to digitization, automation, or other ways of managing staff shortages than to an influx of workers.
More than half of the open vacancies are in the retail, healthcare, and business services sectors. There is also a significant shortage in the construction sector. The vacancy rate, the number of vacancies per 1,000 employee jobs, is the highest in the construction industry at 79. The national vacancy rate decreased from 44 to 42 last quarter.
“Unemployment has risen in recent months, but mainly because more people have started looking for a job,” CBS economist Peter Hein van Mulligen said, according to NOS. This includes people with occupational disabilities or long-term illnesses and retirees returning to work. “So there is in unemployment isn’t just due to people losing their jobs.”
A total of 9.8 million people in the Netherlands had paid work in the third quarter. Over 5.6 million of them had a permanent employment contract, 37,000 more than the previous quarter. The rest are part-timers, working less than 36 hours a week.
According to CBS, the number of part-timers who want to work more hours has increased this year. Around 541,000 part-time workers wanted more hours in the third quarter, 37,000 more than at the end of 2024.
That’s good news for the labor market, according to Van Mulligen. “If part-timers were to work more, it would alleviate the shortage in the labor market,” he said. But added that this won’t be enough to solve the staff shortages in various sectors.
