Over 50 pct. of Dutch with occupational disabilities are unemployed

Last year some 1.7 million people in the Netherlands between the ages of 15 and 74 years had some form of occupational disability. Of those between the ages of 25 to 45 years, the age group most active in the Dutch labor market, only 42 percent have paid work, according to figures released by Statistics Netherlands on Monday. According to the statistics office, nearly 400 thousand of the occupationally disabled people in the Netherlands fall into the age group 25 to 45 years old. Half of that group weren't active on the labor market last year and do not belong to the work force - they are not looking for or available to work. That percentage is much higher than among the people in the age group without disabilities, of whom only 8 percent are inactive on the labor market. Of the 194 thousand people with occupational disabilities who are active in the labor market, 27 thousand are unemployed. That is an unemployment rate of 14 percent, compared to 5 percent unemployment rate among their non-disabled peers.