The Dutch unemployment rate may have dipped below 5% this year but there are still 1.3 million people who would like a job or who would like to work longer hours, the national statistics agency CBS said on Wednesday. Nevertheless, the number of people classed as 'unused potential' has gone down 200,000 over the past year. Of the 1.3 million, some 451,000 are officially unemployed, a further 436,000 would like a job and are looking for work, and 460,000 were part-timers who want more hours, the CBS said. The CBS puts the Dutch working population at nine million, of whom 4.1 million work part time and 4.4 million have a full time job. A further 3.9 million people aged 15 to 75 are not in work and not looking for a job, mainly because they are retired (1.56 million) or claiming some form of invalidity benefit (750,000). A further 440,000 people are still in education.  More >

The average hourly rate charged by freelancers in the Netherlands did not go up at all this year and remains €43, according to research by website Hoofdkraan.nl. However, the fees charged by social media consultants has gone down, as has the pay rate for freelancer teachers, the research shows. The market for freelancer writers and translators has also become more difficult. The website bases its claim on 15,000 bids for work offered via its online plaform. The results indicate that marketing and communications experts are now charging rates of €43 an hour, compared with €46 a year ago. The biggest drop is among social media specialists. Their average fee is now €38 an hour, compared with €54 in 2014. Freelance teachers are now offering their services for just €33 an hour, Hoofdkraan said. This is below the fee charged by freelance secretaries and bloggers and less than half of that of a legal advisor, who asks for an average €73 an hour. The research also shows that Groningen is the best place to be a freelancer - fees there have risen 23% since 2014. Rotterdammers are the best paid in the four big cities, with average charges of €45 an hour.  More >

Stealing company property is the most common reason why Dutch bosses sack workers on the spot, the Volkskrant said on Tuesday. In total, 18% of the 194 published court cases about instant dismissal in the previous 12 months revolve around theft, the paper said. Fraud and conflicts about reintegrating workers who have been off sick each account for 12% of instant dismissal cases. One case referred to by the paper is that of a cleaner at the Action budget retail group, a cleaner and a garage worker who were fired for stealing a packet of crisps, a packet of biscuits and a car part. Other cases are more serious, such as that of the man who stole €55,000 from a healthcare institution. In Dutch employment law, a worker must have been involved in a serious crime to be sacked on the spot. However, instant dismissal is regularily used as the starting point for negotiations and often never reaches court, labour lawyer Henriette van Baalen told the paper. 'Instant dismissal is a form of pressure used in negotiations,' she said.  More >

The next government needs to reform the rules surrounding company bicycles which are complex and unworkable, motoring organisation Bovag said on Monday. Several years ago, the government replaced a tax break on bikes used to cycle to work with a 'lease bike' scheme, similar to that for company cars. However, the rules are so complex that companies are steering clear of offering their staff bikes, Bovag says. In particular, people using a company bike have to keep a register of how many kilometres they cycle privately, which is then taxed as a company perk. But there is no uniform way of calculating this, and tax inspectors too are divided, Bovag says. 'We should be praising the fact that employers give their staff a bike, not making it more difficult by introducing impossible tax barriers,' Bovag said. Last week, the national statistics office CBS said the average commute to work in the Netherlands is 22 kilometres.  More >