This week the UWW released statistics announcing that a mere 2,000 workers in the Netherlands were given permanent job contracts in 2011, a steep decline from 83,000 only a year earlier in 2010.
The findings come as a shock because a decline this severe is unprecedented. During previous economic downturns in the country, the number of contracts remained relatively steady.
A spokesman from the UWW, which serves as the Dutch government’s job center and benefits payment agency, told the Daily Trouw that the dramatic 97% drop “may have something to do with the continuing uncertainty hanging over the market but we don’t really know.”
Analysts, meanwhile, are speculating that the change is fueled by grim economic outlooks and the country’s ongoing recession. Many Dutch organizations are now opting to make due with employees operating under temporary contracts.
According to the labor laws that govern the Netherlands, a company is limited when it comes to these agreements and can only renew a temporary contract twice. After the third, an employee must be given a permanent contract or terminated.
Still, the news isn’t all bad. There was a substantial increase in short-term contracts nationwide over the course of 2011, jumping from
227,000 to 368,000. While the number of contracts in the Netherlands’ construction sector dropped by 4,000 last year, 12,000 other positions were available under temporary contracts or on a freelance basis.
Research conducted by the SCP, the government’s socio/cultural agency, revealed that many of these short-term contracts are renewed after they expire.
By Brandon Hartley, Linkedin Profile
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Mr. C. Joubert
Lead Workplace Strategy Consultant