One in five employers in the Netherlands experience interruption in production due to a shortage of suitable staff, according to data from UWV, the Dutch employee insurance agency. Staff shortages have doubled from last year, but are still not as great as ten years ago.

While 20% of employers’ report having staffing shortages across the country, this number is even higher in certain labour sectors including temporary employment agencies, call centers, IT service providers, architects and the metal and technology industries.

According to UWV, a few years ago, job vacancies were largely in engineering and IT, but there are now staff shortages for roles from gardeners, window cleaners, and truck drivers to health care.

The UVW published a list of 24 solutions for difficult to fill vacancies. These solutions include tapping into new talent, training existing staff, retaining employees by being an employer they want to work for, and changing the way work is organised (dividing different tasks, reducing administrative burdens). For the full list of UWV’s solutions click here (in Dutch).