The number of jobless people in the Netherlands rose to 403,000 in the period August to October, some 111,000 more than a year ago, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

It is the first time in three years the jobless total has topped 400,000, the CBS said. The official unemployment rate has been unchanged at 5% for the past three months.
The unemployment rate is highest among 15 to 24-year-olds at 10.8% and lowest among the over 45s. Men are slightly less likely to be jobless than women, the figures show.
The government’s macro economic forecasting agency CPB said in August it expects the unemployment rate to reach 8% next year.
In 2005, the jobless total reached 500,000.