Staff shortage apparent in many sectors
Increasingly more sectors are affected by staff shortage, the NOS reported based on figures by the Employee Insurance Agency, UWV. The scarcity of workers is already known in sectors such as nursing and teaching but also affects other areas such as gardening, career advisors and receptionists.
The UWV measured the demand for professions by looking at the number of open vacancies compared to the number of short-term unemployed who can fill those positions. A shortage exists when there are more jobs than people who can fill them. “We are already seeing in the second quarter that the number of vacancies continued to increase across the board”, head of labor market information at the UWV, Rob Witjes, said.
Labor market professor at the Tilburg University, Ton Wilthagen called the shortage of career advisors “striking”. “The shortage on the labor market never went away, it was only suppressed by corona. Now we need people again and career counselors can find these workers.”
Compared to the last quarter of 2020, the demand for landscape gardeners in Zuid-Holland, Noord-Brabant and Zwolle has also increased. In the first quarter of this year, there was also a shortage of sales representatives in the regions of Zeeland and Noord-Brabant. More telephone operators and receptionists are also needed now compared to the end of 2020. Additionally, there is an acute shortage of electricians, technicians, nurses and teachers across the country.
“A shortage of people is also a form of crisis”, Wilthagen said. “It hinders economic recovery. If we don’t have the people, companies and organizations cannot provide the products and services they would like to.” There is no quick solution to the problem, according to Wilthagen. “There is no one-size-fits-all answer”, the professor said. “As a part-time country, we can start working more. That is the fastest solution but we also have to make the work more attractive.”
The staff shortage allowed for employees to be able to make direct demands. “That is a unique situation”, Wilthagen said.
The labor market professor stated that the staff shortage is the direct result of the aging demographic in the Netherlands while attracting staff from abroad or retraining people can take time.
