Dutch unemployment rate falls for fourth month in a row

The Dutch unemployment rate fell for the fourth month in a row in August, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

In total, 13,000 people found work, taking the jobless rate to 8%. Unemployment has now fallen by an average of 14,000 a month over the previous three months, the CBS said.

At the same time, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit (ww) fell by 7,000 in August to 430,000.

According to the definition used by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Dutch unemployment rate was 6.6% last month, a marginal drop of 0.1 percentage point.

The ILO definition of the workforce includes everyone who wants to work, even if just for one or two hours. The Dutch definition involves people looking for a job of at least 12 hours a week.

The government’s macro-economic think tank CPB has forecast the Dutch jobless total will fall from 650,000 to 605,000 next year.

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