Number of vacancies further down

• Number of vacancies declines by 6 thousand
• Most substantial reduction in sector commercial services

Adjusted for seasonal variation, there were 91 thousand unfilled vacancies at the end of June, a reduction by 6 thousand relative to the first quarter, which means that the downward trend continues. According to the most recent figures released by Statistics Netherlands, the number of vacancies has reached the lowest level of the past decade.

The private sector entirely accounts for the decrease in the number of vacancies. In the public sector, the number of vacancies has in fact grown. The most dramatic decline occurred in the sector commercial services; the number of vacancies fell by 3 thousand to 56 thousand. 

The trend with respect to the number of open vacancies is determined by the number of new vacancies and the number of filled vacancies. In the second quarter of this year, 162 thousand new vacancies were created, 17 thousand fewer than one year previously. With 162 thousand, the number of filled vacancies in the second quarter was also below the level of twelve months previously.