The official Dutch unemployment rate fell for the third month in a row in July and now totals 8.2% of the working population, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

Some 12,000 people found work in July, taking the year on year decline to 50,000.

However, the number of people claiming unemployment benefits rose 6,000 to almost 440,000 as more people working in the care and transport sector lost their jobs.

At the same time, the size of the working population – unemployed plus people in work – fell by 100,000 over the past year as more people withdrew from the workforce.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Dutch unemployment rate is 6.7%, down 0.1 percentage point on June. The European average is 11.5%.

The ILO definition includes everyone who works, including school children with a few hours work a week. The Dutch definition only includes people working or wanting to work at least 12 hours a week.