More people looking for work

Unemployment has risen again since the summer of 2011. In the third quarter of this year, 422 thousand people in the Netherlands were unemployed. The increase was caused mainly by people who did not have a job - or worked for only a few hours a week - and were not looking for work.

More people from non-labour force

Compared with twelve months ago, more people have started to look for a job. In the third quarter of  2011, 163 thousand unemployed people did not belong to the labour force in the preceding quarter. This is the equivalent of nearly 39 percent of the unemployed. They had not been looking for work or were not available to start a job in the short term. In the same quarter of 2010 this was the case for 34 percent of all unemployed.

Unemployed in third quarter by labour status in second quarter

Fewer unemployed find a job

In addition to a larger inflow into unemployment, there was a also a smaller outflow from unemployment in the third quarter of this year. Fewer unemployed people than twelve months previously found a job of at least 12 hours a week: 96 thousand in the third quarter of 2011, just over 24 percent of those unemployed in the second quarter. In the third quarter of last year, 117 thousand unemployed found work, accounting for nearly 27 percent of the unemployed in the previous quarter.

Unemployed in second quarter by labour status in third quarter

Situation different than previous period of rising unemployment

Just as in the third quarter of 2011, the number of unemployed also rose strongly in the first quarter of 2009. In that quarter, however, it rose because a large number of people lost their job. The inflow of people who were not in the labour force decreased slightly, on the other hand.

Hendrika Lautenbach and Maico Hoksbergen