More than 500 Dutch companies employing 50 or more people, moved one or more of their activities outside the country between 2014 and 2016, resulting in a shift of 30,000 jobs, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

Companies with a non-Dutch parent were most likely to move jobs outside the Netherlands, the CBS said.

More than 250 companies moved administrative and management functions abroad. And roughly 220 firms shifted core activities, production or delivery to new locations outside the Netherlands. These included not only factory jobs but also those in design and maintenance.

Another 5,700 jobs were lost in services and supporting IT functions. The major reason for moving jobs outside the country was lower salary costs. Nearly 70% of the jobs were moved to other EU countries, although 20% were shifted to India.

At the same time, 100 companies moved certain activities back to the Netherlands. Of these activities 60% were in production and more than 23% in administrative and management functions, the CBS added.

The most important reasons for this were insufficient quality of the goods or services produced abroad and higher-than-expected costs.