Slight increase in number of unemployed persons

Around 3.6 million people aged 15 to 74 were not in paid employment in September. In addition to the 377 thousand people who were unemployed, 3.2 million people were not actively seeking work or not immediately available for work. Many of these are retirees and people who are unable to work due to sickness or incapacitation. These people are not counted as part of the labour force. Averaged over the past three months, the number of people outside the labour force has risen by 15 thousand per month.

UWV: number of unemployment benefits rose slightly in September

UWV: increase in benefits in government and education sectors

Fewer unemployed people are finding jobs and more people are becoming unemployed

Unemployment trends are the result of underlying movements between those in employment, the unemployed and those who are not part of the labour force. This is visualised in the chart below. The graph below the chart shows the changes in these different flows over the past few years.

Unemployment can increase or decrease due to four different changes in people’s circumstances. Two of these can lead to lower unemployment. The first change occurs when an unemployed person finds a job. The second change occurs when an unemployed person stops seeking work and leaves the labour market. In September, there were 232 thousand people who had been unemployed three months earlier.

There are also two changes that can lead to higher unemployment. The first happens when an employed person loses their job and the second when a person who was previously unavailable for work decides to seek employment. If people in these groups do not find work immediately, they become part of the unemployed labour force. The total number of people who became unemployed in August was, at 239 thousand, slightly higher than the number who ceased to be unemployed, at 232 thousand. As such, the number of unemployed persons has increased slightly over the past three months, by 7 thousand.

Every month, CBS publishes figures on the labour force in accordance with guidelines of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The corresponding indicators, i.e. the employed and unemployed labour force, are used around the world to describe cyclical developments on the labour market. Monthly figures are essential in this respect. In addition, UWV issues its own monthly figures on unemployment benefit. The figures released by UWV do not correspond directly with the labour force indicators.