Unemployment Decreases

After the adoption of the Work and Security Act (WWZ), a new classification method on the basis of income adjustment was introduced in July 2015, which structurally increased the number of current unemployment benefits; firstly, because people who start working may still be entitled to income supplement under the Unemployment Act (WW) and secondly, their entitlement to a benefit is only terminated after a check has been performed to verify whether their self-reported income matches the income as stated by their employer. These data are available in the Policy administration.

UWV: Fewer new claimants

Compared to the same period last year, over the first five months of 2016, UWV paid 219,000 new unemployment benefits, a decline of nearly 30,000 (or 12%). Apart from retail department stores, the number of new benefit claimants fell across all sectors this year. The number of new claimants fell significantly in the sectors of health care and welfare ( less 23%), printing and publishing (less 22%) and public administration(less 21%).

The peak of unemployment was reached in February 2014, when nearly 700,000 (7.9% of the labour force) were unemployed. Subsequently, unemployment has fallen almost continuously. In May this year, 6.3% of the labour force were unemployed.

More people in work
The number of people in paid work has risen by an average of 17,000 a month over the past three months. On the one hand, the number of people who found work is higher than the number of people who became unemployed and on the other hand, the number of newcomers on the labour market who found work almost immediately is higher than the number of employed leaving the labour market.
The Dutch population includes 12.8 million people in the 15-74 age group. In this group, 65.7% were in paid employment, nearly 8.4 million people, of whom 4.5 million are men and nearly 3.9 million are women.


Source: CBS