The official Dutch unemployment rate fell again to 3.4% in April, but the number of people who are not looking for a job rose 12,000 to 3.8 million people, national statistics agency CBS said on Thursday.

In total 316,000 people are officially unemployed in the Netherlands, which means they are available and actively looking for work.

The official unemployment rate has been falling since last August when it reached 4.6%. An average of 7,000 people have left the unemployment list per month over the past three months.

Some 266,000 people are currently claiming unemployment benefits (ww), down 16,000 on March and the third monthly decline in a row.

Jobless benefit claims are declining across a wide range of companies but the drop is most noticeable in the temporary employment and hospitality industries, the CBS said.

In addition, seasonal factors such as the availability of farm work lead to a decline in unemployment benefit claims in the spring.