As can be said with the end of every year, 2015 has certainly been eventful. This is particularly stue of the job market, and its condition. In The Netherlands, we've seen a general increase in the number of jobs since January. However, the number of jobs does not tell us much about the state of the market we are in, only that the supply has increase. Furthermore, this gives us no information on what to expect for 2016.
For more information on the state of the Dutch job market, we asked Nick var der Dussen, commercial manager for Undutchables, who proovided us with an excellent overview of both the 2015 job market, and what we can expect for 2016. “After some more rough years in the economy we noticed the job market was slowly picking up again in 2014,” Said Nick. “Economic indicators foresaw a continued growth and employment agencies are always first to notice this. Business wise, we expected some growth for 2015 and this has come through.”
The area we are most interested in, is where international job seekers fit into the dutch job market. In particular, we wanted to know which industries were the most active. However, Nick noted that there were no specific industries that were taking in more foreign staff than others. Despite this, “generally speaking, we do notice that the demand for qualified multilingual sales staff has increased very much, while the demand for financial staff has dropped somewhat.”
Nick: We [also] notice that hiring of multilingual staff and knowledge migrants is clearly picking up. At Undutchables, we do not offer student jobs but do notice a strong rise in vacancies/ staffing requests ranging from starter positions up to executive level.
When asked whether any legal changes that occurred in The Netherlands have had a noticable impact, Nick spoke of the changes to the Wet Werk en Zekerheid (Law on Work and Security, WWZ). “Companies will now have to offer a candidate a fixed contract sooner though via various temping routes this can be made more flexible. We do notice that our clients tend to choose for a more a flexible solution.”
With the rise of flexibility being paramount to new employees in balancing work and life, Nick mirrored our sentiments for how we expect this trend to grow in 2016, as they “expect a growth in flexible contracting here as we have seen in 2015 when the new laws were installed.”
When asked more generally about what we can expect from 2016, he siad we can expect a similar growth as found in 2015. “More vacancies will be available in 2016 is our expectation. We do notice that companies are expanding again internationally so new roles will be created. Aside this, employees that have been in a certain 'comfort zone' during the crisis years are now more willing/ daring to take on a new challenge, making the job market more dynamic.”
Nick: We expect (and hope) that the economic situation, and job market with that, will develop itself in the same positive way it did in 2014 and 2015.
However, there is still a certain amount of uncertainty in this. The reason stems mainly from the information availiable for predicting these trends. When making predictions on how the job market will advance, “we have to rely on the general economic situation though we feel that the way up and out of the crisis is more steady/ stable than previous years.”
In a final question, we asked what the biggest challenge for Undutchables will be in 2016. To this, Nicks stated that, “Companies and candidates are our customers and we will have to remain on top of our game to stay of added value for all parties involved. This is an ongoing process for us which offers new challenges on a daily basis.”
In an overview of 2015, we saw the first steps to a reparation of the job market, with a slow but steady rise in the number of jobs, as well as a drop in unemployment. For 2016, we can expect a similar pattern to emerge. Though the outcome looks promising, we must remain vigilent to any possible fluctuation in the market, and be prepared to offer the best services we can.
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Mr. C. Joubert
Lead Workplace Strategy Consultant