Within four months, employers are going to be in a panic about recruiting enough staff because of the economic boom, according to Rens de Groot, chairman of the Dutch job agencies CWI. Speaking at the presentation of a major report on the jobs market yesterday, De Groot said that the labour market was already tight.

When employers started looking for seasonal staff next spring it would be even more tough, he said.
Loek Hermans, chairman of the medium and small firm lobby group MKB-Nederland, said his members were finding it difficult to meet production targets now because of the shortage of staff with the right skills.
CWI figures show that people with few skills were being cut out of the jobs market by the better educated, even for jobs which did not require specific training. Yet at the same time, construction, manufacturing and healthcare were finding it hard to recruit enough staff, the CWI figures show.
Despite the staff shortages, older people found it particularly hard to get a job. Of the 127,000 people aged over 55 on the CWI’s books this year, only 12,000 got a job. But well over half the 40 to 54 year-olds found work.