Turnover in the Dutch temporary employment sector grew by 2.6% in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the third quarter of 2023, according to the latest data from Statistics Netherlands.

The research noted that after nine quarters of declining turnover growth, there is now (slightly) higher growth than in the previous quarter.

In the third quarter of 2024, turnover in all sectors within business services (including the temporary employment sector) was 6.7% higher than in the previous year’s third quarter.  

Growth has been on a downward trend since the third quarter of 2022 but it is now higher than in the previous quarter for two quarters.

Among all sectors, the highest Q3 growth (compared to the prior year) was seen in market and opinion research (12.6%).

Meanwhile, business confidence among business service providers came to 1.0 at the start of the fourth quarter of 2024. At the start of the third quarter, this was still -4.1. This ends a series of six months with negative business confidence.

Entrepreneurs in the business services sector are more optimistic about the economic climate in the past three months and the coming three months. The data also showed that they are more optimistic about the expected turnover development.

At the start of the fourth quarter, 22.8% of entrepreneurs expect to increase their turnover. A quarter ago, there was a negative turnover expectation of 3.6%.

Overall in the fourth quarter,  11.5% expect an increase in headcount. Furthermore, 54.4% of entrepreneurs indicated that a shortage of workers hampers them.