The number of jobs in the Netherlands found through employment agencies grew by 13,000 in the fourth quarter of 2016 to reach a total of 754,000, according to labour market figures from the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek.

The data also showed that number of job vacancies rose in the fourth quarter by 8,000 and the number of unemployed decreased by 29,000. The total unemployment rate in Q4 2016 was 5.5%, down from 5.8% in the previous quarter. Furthermore, the total number of jobs increased by 53,000 in Q4 2016. In the last quarter of 2016 there were an average of 10.1 million jobs.

Most of the jobs in Q4 were from the trade, transport and catering sectors (16,000). Together, these sectors accounted for a quarter of the total number of jobs in the Netherlands.