Around 600,000 people with disabilities can work helping to reduce staff shortages

If people with disabilities had the same job opportunities as other employees, it would create 600,000 additional employees for companies. ABN Amro calculated this based on numbers provided by Statistics Netherlands (CBS). The bank stated that the labor potential of people with disabilities in the Netherlands is not being sufficiently utilized.

According to the bank, the untapped potential of people with disabilities can reduce staff shortages, provided that employers are prepared to adapt their work.

Over half of the Dutch population of 15 to 65 years of age has a light or severe disability and struggles to work because of it, ABN Amro stated. The CBS uses a broad definition for this, which includes asthma, hearing loss, drug abuse, and depression. Of the 5 million people without a disability, 82 percent have a job, compared to 72 percent of the 6 million Dutch people with a disability, the bank reported.

The government and the business community made an agreement in 2013 to create at least 125,000 jobs for people with a work disability by 2026, of which more than 85,000 have already been created.

Some people with a disability are structurally unemployed and can no longer work due to physical, social, or mental conditions. However, according to the bank, there are also people with a less severe disability or who have completed a higher professional or university education who often do not qualify for the arrangements of the so-called job agreement.

In total, around 600,000 Dutch people are "unnecessarily sidelined," ABN Amro wrote. "Even if a third of these people cannot find work due to their disability, the remaining 400,000 are sufficient to fill all open vacancies in the Netherlands", says ABN Amro economist David Bolscher.