Unemployment in the Netherlands has risen above the number of available jobs for the first time in four years, new figures from the national statistics office CBS show.

Between July and September, the number of people out of work increased by several thousand to 399,000, while employers reported 387,000 open positions.

Most of the unemployed, around 84%, have been out of work for less than a year. Although many vacancies are filled quickly, a similar number of new jobs continue to appear, keeping the total number of vacancies relatively stable, the CBS said.

More than half of all job openings are in retail, healthcare and business services. “Think of shop staff, nurses and people working across a range of companies,”  CBS chief economist Peter Hein van Mulligen told broadcaster NOS. “The construction sector also remains tight, with strong demand for plumbers and bricklayers.”

Van Mulligen said the rise in unemployment is mainly due to more people starting to look for work, not job losses. This includes former benefit recipients, first-time jobseekers and even pensioners returning to the labour market. “So the increase isn’t simply caused by people losing their jobs,” he said.

Of the 9.8 million people in work, just over half have full-time jobs, while the rest work fewer than 36 hours a week. The number of part-timers wanting to work more hours has grown to 541,000 — an increase of 37,000 since the end of last year.

“More part-timers working extra hours could ease pressure on the labour market,” Van Mulligen said. “But it’s doubtful whether that alone will solve the staff shortages in key sectors.”