The rise in unemployment between 2008 and 2012 has hit the low-skilled much harder than people with college or university degrees, the national statistics office CBS said on Monday.

In 2012, 8.8% of people with no or little further education were without work, up from 5.3% in 2008. But just 4.1% of people with a university degree were unemployed last year, up from 2.4% the year the crisis started.

Low-skilled people with building skills or who had done some form of technical studies were most likely to be unemployed, the CBS said.

Urban jobs

At the same time, research by the Netherlands’ environmental assessment agency PBL shows it is much harder for people living outside the urban conurbation known as the Randstad to find work than those living in one of the main metropolitan areas.

The report, due to be published later on Monday but quoted by the Volkskrant, said the unemployed from the Randstad or Noord-Brabant are up to four times faster in finding work than those in Zeeland or eastern parts of Groningen.

For example, chemicals giant Dow Chemical is not only the biggest employer in southern Zeeland but is the only chemical sector company, forcing staff who lose their jobs to move to find work.

The bankruptcy of holiday firm Oad Reizen based in Overijssel has a similar impact. The 1,000 workers who lost their jobs will also find it hard to find new work because other big tourist groups are based in the Randstad.