Higher share of Ukrainian refugees in employment

© CBS

Erratum:

An error was made in compiling the figures on which this news release was based. We apologise for this. Based on the corrected figures, part of the text under the heading ‘Majority have flexible contracts and work part-time' has been revised. The corrected text is as follows:

Half work full-time, most have flexible contract

Most Ukrainian refugees were employed as on-call workers (26 percent), temporary workers (43 percent), or had other temporary employment (28 percent). Slightly more than half of the refugees (51 percent) worked full-time, i.e. 35 hours per week or more; 24 percent worked less than 25 hours per week. On average, they worked approximately the same number of hours as at the beginning of July. However, a larger share was employed as temporary workers and a smaller share as on-call workers compared to July.

Out of the approximately 65 thousand Ukrainian refugees aged 15 to 64 years who were residing in the Netherlands on 1 November 2022, 46 percent were in paid employment. This was still 35 percent on 1 July. This is reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) on the basis of figures on Ukrainian refugees in paid employment.

Ukrainian refugees who came to the Netherlands after the Russian invasion in late February 2022 do not need a work permit to work. This puts them in an exceptional position compared to other migrants from outside the European Union or countries of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). Around 65 thousand of the Ukrainians in the Netherlands were between the ages of 15 and 64. Over 30 thousand of them were employed by a Dutch employer. This is equivalent to 46 percent.

Majority have flexible contracts and work part-time

Most Ukrainian refugees were employed as on-call workers (26 percent), temporary workers (43 percent), or had other temporary employment (28 percent). The majority of refugees worked part-time: 58 percent worked less than 25 hours per week; 13 percent worked full-time (35 hours or more). On average, they were working more hours per week than at the beginning of July. The proportion working more than 20 hours per week increased by 38 percent. In addition, a larger share was employed as temporary workers and a smaller share as on-call workers compared to July.

Most Ukrainian refugees were employed in the business services sector (56 percent), which includes employment agencies. It is often impossible to verify in which sector temporary employees are being deployed. Apart from business services, comparatively many Ukrainian refugees also worked in the sector trade, transport and accommodation and food services. Most of them were employed in accommodation and food services.

Refugees with non-Ukrainian nationality more likely to be employed

Eight percent of the refugees from Ukraine do not have Ukrainian nationality. These are 6.8 thousand people, most of whom have Nigerian or Moroccan nationality, or the nationality of a country belonging to the former Soviet Union. Three quarters of this group are men (75 percent). Among refugees with Ukrainian nationality, on the other hand, men are in the minority (38 percent).

The group of refugees with non-Ukrainian nationality had a larger share of employees than the group with Ukrainian nationality (68 versus 44 percent). This was particularly true for young men (77 versus 38 percent in the 15-24 age category). This was already the case at the beginning of July, but the gap had widened by November.

Furthermore, 16 percent of those not holding Ukrainian nationality had more than one job at the same time. This is over twice as many as in the group with Ukrainian nationality.