The labor market became even tighter in the fourth quarter than it already was. Although the number of vacancies fell, the number of unemployed fell faster. There are now 123 vacancies for every 100 unemployed, according to figures from Statistics Netherlands on Tuesday.
The labor market has been very tight for some time now: there are more jobs than there are unemployed workers at home. Companies, such as Schiphol and the Dutch Railways, therefore find it difficult to find new staff. The problems seemed to ease somewhat in the third quarter, but the tightness got worse again in the last three months.
For example, there were 442,000 unfilled vacancies at the end of December. Although there were seven thousand less than in the previous quarter, the number of unemployed fell by thirteen thousand. A lot of personnel is being sought in trade, healthcare, industry and the catering industry, among others.
There were 359,000 unemployed in the fourth quarter. That is 3.6 percent of the working population, which is a small decrease compared to the 3.7 percent in the previous quarter. Unemployment among young people is somewhat higher than among older age groups.
The figures also show that nearly one million jobs (956,000) have been added since the third quarter of 2020. As a result, there are currently 11,545,000 full-time and part-time jobs in our country. This includes both salaried and self-employed jobs.
