The Dutch construction sector has now been expanding for nearly three years in a row, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

Turnover grew 6.3% in the second quarter of this year, marking the 11th successive quarterly rise, the CBS said.

In particular small and medium sized building firms have benefited, with rises of 9.3% and 8.7% respectively, the CBS said. By contrast, the big construction groups saw sales up 2.2%.

Some 527,000 people are currently employed in the building trade, a rise of 8,000 on the first quarter of the year. But there are still 11,400 vacancies waiting to be filled, the highest number since 2009 and one in five building firms say they have a shortage of personnel.