Unemployment 3.6% in July; More permanent contracts

Last month, 370,000 work-age people in the Netherlands were unemployed. That brings the unemployment rate to 3.6 percent, about the same as in May and June, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported. Over the past two years, the number of people working with permanent contracts has steadily increased, especially in government services and healthcare.

Over the past three months, the number of unemployed people decreased by an average of 2,000 people per month. The number of employed people decreased by that same number in that period.

In July, the Netherlands also counted 3.2 million people who did not have paid work but were not considered unemployed because they weren’t actively looking for work or weren’t available to start immediately. These are mainly retirees or people unable to work due to illness or disability. They aren’t considered part of the working population. On average, this group grew by 6,000 per month over the past three months.

At the end of July, the benefits agency UWV paid out 164,200 unemployment benefits, a decrease of 3,600 (-2.2 percent) compared to June. The number of unemployment benefits typically decreases in the summer due to more seasonal work in sectors like construction, hospitality, and agriculture.

Over the past two years, the number of employees with a permanent contract slowly, but steadily increased, CBS reported. In the second quarter of 2024, there were 213,000 more employees with a permanent contract than the same quarter two years earlier. That increased the percentage of workers with a permanent employment relationship with their employer from 55.3 to 55.9 percent.

The largest increase in permanent contracts was in public administration and government services. In this sector, the number of employees with permanent contracts increased by 71,000 in two years. Despite that, the percentage of government workers with permanent contracts remained stable because the number of flexible workers also increased.

Healthcare also had a big increase in permanent contracts at 60,000. In this sector, the percentage of permanent workers also increased because the number of people working on a flexible contract decreased.

“In the other sectors, the differences in the number of permanent employment relationships were relatively small compared to two years ago,” CBS said.