Continuous job growth accelerates

In the third quarter of 2006, the number of jobs of employees was 110 thousand higher than in the same period one year previously. The increase was 1.5 percent. Job growth in the third quarter amply exceeded the growth in the first six months of 2006. In the first half of the year jobs growth increased by 1.1 percent. This signifies an acceleration in the recovery of employment. The number of jobs in the Netherlands amounted to over 7.6 million in the third quarter of 2006.

The services sector generated by far the majority of jobs. A substantial number of these are temp jobs. Temp workers are employed in all kinds of branches, among which industry and transport. The tide also turned in trade and the hotel and restaurant sector which also generated more jobs as well in the third quarter of 2006 compared with the same quarter last year. Health care remains an important provider of new jobs, with an increase of 22 thousand. By contrast, in manufacturing, the government sector and particularly in transport the loss of jobs continued.

Adjusted for seasonal effects, the number of jobs was 0.5 percent up in the third quarter on twelve months previously. This growth rate is the largest since the second quarter of 2005, when job losses ended. It is the sixth quarter in a row with an increase in the number of jobs compared to the preceding quarter.

In the third quarter of 2006, wages and salaries per fte were 1.7 percent higher than in the same quarter one year previously. Because employers paid less for (pre)pension and disablement provisions, the total rise in labour costs amounted to 1.3 percent per fte. This is well over the 0.6 percent increase in the second quarter of 2006.

Growth rate jobs and economic growth