Jobless rate rises to 8.8%, unemployment benefit claims up 22%

The Dutch unemployment rate rose to 8.8% in February, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

Some 13,000 people joined the ranks of the unemployed last month, taking the total to 691,000. It is the third month in a row that unemployment has risen.

The sharpest rise was among the 25 to 45-year-olds and there was little increase in the number of young jobless. This is partly because there are fewer under-25s joining the labour market because they are still in education, the CBS said.

Calculated according to the ILO definition, the Dutch unemployment rate rose from 7.1% to 7.3%.

Benefits

There was only a minor month-on-month rise in people claiming benefits, but compared to a year ago, the number of jobless benefit claims is up 22%.

Transport, logistics, healthcare and welfare sector workers account for the bulk of the new claims.

‘Work should not only be an issue for national government but for all the local council coalitions which are now being formed,’ the chairman of the CNV trade union federation Maurice Limmen told website nu.nl.

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