Back to the labor market: NL's non-working population shrank significantly last year

The Netherlands’ non-working population shrank significantly last year as people who weren’t looking for work decided to return to the tight labor market after all, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. People 45 and older, in particular, are working more and more often.

Last year, the Netherlands had 3.3 million people in the non-working population. That is 25 percent of the total population, down from 27 percent in 2021. These are people who don’t have paid work, are not looking for work, or are not available to start immediately. According to CBS, it mainly involves pensioners or people unable to work due to illness or disability.

According to CBS, especially older people aged 45 to 75 worked more and more often last year. This involved more women than men. In 2003, 59 percent of women over 45 were not working. Last year, that was 43 percent. In men that age, the percentage fell from 40 to 32 percent.

At the start of this century, around 30 percent of Netherlands residents aged 15 to 75 were part of the non-working population. That decreased quickly in the economically good years of 2007 and 2008 as more people went to work. During and after the economic crisis, the percentage of non-workers fluctuated around 27 percent.

The decline in the non-working population is partly due to the economic cycle, which is currently in a period of high vacancies and low unemployment, but also due to a higher state pension age and the abolishment of early retirement schemes.