The number of people officially registered as unemployed in the Netherlands has dipped under 400,000 for the first time in eight years, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

In November, the jobless total fell to 397,000 people, the CBS said. This also means more people than ever are working – 8.7 million have a job, of whom 4.5 million work full-time. Of the 4.2 million part-timers, almost 500,000 would like to work longer hours.

The drop takes the official Dutch unemployment rate to 4.4%, corrected for seasonal influences.

At the same time, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell to 336,000 in November, taking the reduction in new claims to 18% over the year. Unemployment benefit (ww) is payable for up to three years, after which people can claim welfare benefits (bijstand).