The shortage of well-qualified  IT, healthcare and construction workers in particular is threatening growth in the three sectors, the government’s job agency UWV said on Tuesday.

The construction and healthcare sectors were hard hit during the recession and that led to cuts in training programmes and apprenticeships. Now, however, these sectors are growing, the UWV said in its latest labour market monitor.

The number of vacancies in the construction sector has more than doubled in two years, while healthcare vacancies have almost doubled.

In particular, the construction sector is experiencing a shortage of skilled carpenters, bricklayers and technicians because so many older workers have now reached retirement age, the UWV said. In healthcare, the biggest shortage is in qualified nursing staff.

The number of jobs has grown across all sectors of the economy apart from in financial services and the civil service.

The UWV expects the number of people claiming unemployment benefit to drop by 100,000 to 311,000 by the end of next year.