Sharp rise in jobless benefit claims

Wednesday 04 November 2009

The number of unemployment benefit claims rose 21,000 to 242,000 in the third quarter of this year, according to new figures from the national statistics office CBS.

Over the past year, the total unemployment benefit bill has risen from €400m to €1bn, the CBS said.

The number of part-time benefit claims almost doubled to 36,000. The government introduced part-time unemployment benefit on a temporary basis to ease problems at companies faced with laying off workers.

Last month, European statistics agency Eurostat said the Netherlands has the lowest official unemployment rate in Europe at just 3.6%.

© DutchNews.nl

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