Slight decrease in unemployment in October

Last month, 365,000 people in the Netherlands were unemployed. That is 3.7 percent of the working population, slightly lower than September’s 3.8 percent, Statistics Netherlands reported on Thursday. On average, over the past three months, the number of unemployed still increased by about 4,000 people per month.

At the end of October, benefits agency UWV paid out 150,000 active unemployment benefits, 1.6 percent less than in September. Compared to a year earlier, the number of active unemployment benefits fell by 49,600, or 24.9 percent. In October, the UWV paid 16,400 new unemployment benefits and terminated 18,900.

In addition to the unemployed, 3.3 million other Netherlands residents between the ages of 15 and 75 were not working in October. They are not counted as part of the working population because they are not looking for work or are not immediately available for work.

“These are mainly people who are retired or unable to work due to illness or disability,” the stats office explained. In the past three months, this group decreased by an average of 8,000 people per month. The number of working people rose by an average of 19,000 per month in this period.