Slightly fewer jobs

In the first quarter of 2012, the number of jobs of employees was 13 thousand down on the first quarter of 2011, a decrease of 0.2 percent. Many jobs were lost in public administration in particular, but the number of jobs also fell in education, construction, manufacturing and financial services. On the other hand, employment improved in the sectors trade, transport, hotels and restaurants and in health care and welfare.

Employment is obviously subject to seasonal variation. After correction for seasonal effects, the number of jobs was 21 thousand down on the fourth quarter of 2011.

Altogether (full-time plus part-time jobs), there were approximately 7.9 million employee jobs in the Netherlands. Converted to full-time equivalents, there were nearly 5.9 million jobs in the first quarter, 0.3 percent fewer than in the first quarter of 2011.

Growth rate jobs and economic growth

More figures can be found in dossier Business cycle.