The Dutch unemployment rate continues to creep up, reaching 3.7% of the working population in September, national statistics agency CBS said on Thursday.

The development, which had been expected, fits in with the wider economic picture, the CBS said. Youngsters have been hardest hit. Some 8.8% of the under-25s are now officially jobless, a 0.5 percentage point rise on June.

In total, 3.6 million people aged 15 to 75 did not do any form of paid work last month, of whom 3.2 million are either studying, pensioners, unable to work or without work for another reason. They are not officially classified as unemployed, in line with the ILO definition.

Although the unemployment rate has been creeping up for five months now, the number of people claiming jobless benefits (ww) has gone down slightly compared with August. Year on year, however, the number of ww claims is up 2%.