Employment decline less substantial

There were 63 thousand fewer jobs of employees in the second quarter of 2010 than in the second quarter of 2009, i.e. a decline by 0.8 percent. The decline is less substantial than in the previous three quarters, when the number of jobs each quarter fell by nearly 2 percent.

The number of jobs of employees in the Netherlands (full-time as well as part-time jobs) totalled nearly 7.9 million in the second quarter of 2010, i.e. 5.9 million jobs converted to full-time equivalents. The decline relative to the second quarter of 2009 was 62 thousand.

Employment is clearly subject to seasonal variation. After adjusting for these effects, the number of jobs in the second quarter was up by 0.3 percent on the first quarter of 2010. Relative to the preceding quarter, employment grew for the first time after five quarters of contraction.

In the second quarter of 2010, wages and salaries per labour year were 1.3 percent up on one year previously. This increase is just a bit higher than the increase in collectively negotiated (CAO) wages by 1.1 percent. Job promotions and variable reward components like bonuses, provisions and payments for overtime work hardly had an upward effect. With 1.5 percent, labour costs per year, including employer premiums, rose more rapidly than wages and salaries. This is due to the fact that employers had to pay higher unemployment and health insurance contributions than one year previously.

Growth rate jobs and economic growth