Job vacancies are down, unemployment is up to 4%: CBS
Unemployment in the Netherlands is on the rise, confirming a trend of the last three years, statistics agency CBS said on Friday.
In the last quarter of 2025, 410,000 people were out of a job, a rise of 11,000 compared to the preceding quarter and taking the official unemployment rate to 4%. The number of vacancies dropped by 7,000 to 380,000, the figures show.
Unemployment is back to pre-coronavirus levels, the CBS said, particularly among 15 to 25-year-olds. The number of unemployed over-45s is also rising.
Most people are unemployed for less than a year but the number of people who are taking longer to find work has risen from 63,000 to 73,000 in the last three months.
In trade, vacancies fell by 3,000 to 68,000. Business services and industry needed 2,000 fewer staff, taking the total to 63,000 and 28,000 respectively.
Other sectors are struggling to find staff, with vacancies in healthcare, for example, rising from 68,000 to 71,000.
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