Despite fears that jobs are being shifted to low-cost countries, the volume of low-skilled work in the Dutch labour market has remained virtually unchanged over the past 20 years, the government’s social policy advisory group SCP said on Wednesday.

But while there are fewer jobs in manufacturing, industry and farming, the number of service sector jobs – such as the catering trade – have gone up sharply, the SCP says. The number of jobs in the transport and logistics sector has also increased.
Almost a quarter of Dutch workers are considered low-skilled – having only completed trade school (vmbo).