The state-run UWV job centres helped 271,400 people find work last year, of whom 35,000 were considered long-term jobless, the organisation said in its 2011 annual report which was published on Wednesday.

In 2010, when when the economic prospects were better, the UWV was instrumental in 314,000 people find a new job.
The government is cutting spending on the job centre organisation as part of its efforts to cut the budget deficit and some 1,000 workers will lose their jobs. ‘The cuts are a real challenge,’ UWV chairman Bruno Bruins told news agency ANP.