NOS / Bart Kamphuis
News from the NOS•
Growth in the Dutch temp market has come to a halt for market leader Randstad. For the first time in a year and a half, the company’s turnover in the Netherlands has not grown.
He has been exceptionally busy for employment agencies for a year and a half. At the start of the crown crisis, companies had said goodbye en masse to temporary workers, but soon they needed more people. Due to the narrowness of the labor market, companies have called in temporary employment agencies at higher rates to find new staff.
According to Randstad, that growth ended in the third quarter of this year. There is growth in the world. Turnover increased by 12 percent to over 7 billion euros.
In almost all regions where Randstad is active, such as the United States, Japan and Australia, there has been a greater demand for services from the employment agency. Only in the Netherlands and Belgium did growth stop.
Anecdotal
According to Dominique Hermans, managing director of Randstad Netherlands, this is mainly due to the fact that last year went very well in the Netherlands. So the company placed many temporary workers on the corona test streets which are now partly closed.
But he also sees that some companies are taking action due to high energy costs and uncertainty. “There are companies here and there that indicate they need fewer people, but you can’t connect that to an industry yet. It’s very anecdotal.”
Since the beginning of this month, Randstad has found some reluctance among companies around the world to hire new staff.
aging
Unemployment in the Netherlands has risen to 3.8 per cent of the workforce this year. In six months, more than 60,000 unemployed people joined. Last week it was announced that companies are filing more layoffs and that the decline in unemployment benefits has come to an end.
At the same time, the labor market is still very tense. Dominique Hermans of Randstad Netherlands doesn’t think it will change anytime soon. “If you look at the data on aging, I suspect there is still a lot of work to be done in our industry for a long time to come.”
