Temporary employment agencies in the Netherlands saw 16,000 fewer jobs in the second quarter than in the previous quarter, a decrease of 2.2%, according to research from Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

The 16,000 decline contrasts with data showing that the total number of employed and self-employed jobs continued to increase in the second quarter when compared to the previous quarter. With a growth of 7,000 the total number comes to 11,528 thousand (up 0.1%). These figures include all jobs, full-time and part-time. The number of jobs has now risen for 12 quarters in a row.

The second quarter of 2020, around when the Covid-19 pandemic began, was the last quarter with a decrease in the number of jobs. Before that, the number of jobs had already increased for 24 quarters in a row.

Meanwhile, in the second quarter of 2023, there were 2.8 million employees with a flexible employment relationship. That is almost as many as in the previous quarter.

This figure is also at the level of the second quarter of 2022, before a significant decline started. The number of employees with a flexible contract peaked in the fourth quarter of 2018, when it was 44,000 higher than in the previous quarter.

The number of employees with a permanent employment relationship increased by 22,000 in the second quarter of 2023 to 5.4 million. This number has risen almost continuously since the fourth quarter of 2015. The number of self-employed people grew by 3,000, to 1.6 million. This number has increased continuously in recent years, but recently the growth has levelled off somewhat.

Data from Statistics Netherlands also found that unemployment fell by 7,000 in the second quarter of 2023 to 350,000. That is 3.5% of the working population; in the first quarter it was still 3.6%.

Although the unemployment rate fell, there are differences between age groups. Unemployment among young people increased from 7.9 to 8.2%. This percentage fell from 3.0% to 2.8% among 25 to 45-year-olds. Unemployment also fell among 45 to 74-year-olds in the second quarter of 2023, from 2.3% to 2.1%.

The tightness in the labour market continued in the second quarter of 2023. There were 122 vacancies for every 100 unemployed, just as in the previous two quarters.

At the end of June, there were 427,000 unfilled vacancies, 10,000 less than at the end of the first quarter. After eight quarters of growth, between mid-2020 and mid-2022, the number of vacancies has decreased from the third quarter of 2022.

As in previous quarters, most vacancies were in trade (87,000), business services (71,000) and health care (65,000). Together, these three industries account for half of all open vacancies.

After an increase in the number of new vacancies in the first quarter, fewer new vacancies were created in the second quarter. In the second quarter there were 354,000, 27,000 less than in the first quarter. 

There were 2,000 new vacancies in trade alone, while the number remained the same in the sectors of public administration (25,000) and agriculture (3,000). There were fewer vacancies in the other industries than in the previous quarter.

The sharpest decrease was in the hotel and restaurant sector, where the number of vacancies fell by 3,000 to 33,000. In information and communication (21,000) and education (12,000) the number of unfilled vacancies fell by 2,000.

Further data showed that employees and the self-employed worked a total of more than 3.6 billion hours in the first quarter of 2023. Adjusted for seasonal influences, this is 0.3% less than in the previous quarter.

Last week, estimates from Statistics Netherlands showed that in Q2 2023 the volume of gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.3% relative to the previous quarter. The contraction in Q2 is mainly due to a decrease in the trade balance and in household consumption.