Declining number of hours worked in temp jobs

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According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the total number of hours worked in temp jobs decreased by 1.5 percent in the first quarter of 2016 on the fourth quarter of 2015. This is the first decrease in almost three years. The decrease is due to a drop in the number of hours worked in long-term temporary contracts. The number of hours worked in short- term contracts has increased, however.

 

Declining number of hours worked in long term-contracts

The number of hours worked under long-term temporary contracts, e.g. secondment and pay-rolling, decreased by 3.0 percent. This number has increased continuously over the past four years.

On the other hand, the number of hours worked under short-term temporary contracts increased by 0.4 percent. In the previous quarter this was 1.9 percent. Developments in short-term temp job hours are usually ahead of the rest of the labour market.

Slight decline in employment

As reported by CBS on 13 May, the number of jobs held by employees and self-employed fell by 12 thousand in Q1 2016 compared to Q4 2015. The number of temp jobs decreased by 2 thousand. However, the number of new job vacancies grew by nearly 8 thousand and unemployment declined by 24 thousand people.