A new recession may hit the Dutch jobs market hard because all the economy’s flexibility to absorb knocks was removed during the last downturn, according to the government’s macro-economic forecasting agency CPB.

During the last recession, unemployment in the Netherlands only rose marginally, the Financieele Dagblad quotes the organisation as saying.
The CPB says in a policy document to be issued on Thursday that jobs will be hit because corporate profits are down and there is no shortage of labour, a very different situation to 2007.
The unemployment rate has risen over the past four months, and at 5.8%, is now slightly above the total during the previous crisis.