Fewer employed people in October

Around 3.6 million people aged 15 to 74 were not in paid employment in October 2024. In addition to the 376 thousand people who were unemployed, 3.3 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 20 thousand per month.

UWV: number of unemployment benefits increased by 3.9 percent in October

UWV: increase in unemployment benefits in seasonal employment sectors

Net labour participation declined in October

Employment outflow higher than inflow

Employment trends are the result of underlying flows between those in employment, unemployed people 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.

Employment can increase or decrease due to four different changes in people’s circumstances. Two of these can lead to a decline in the employment rate: when employed people lose their job and become unemployed, and when employed people stop working and leave the labour market as well as the labour force. In October, a total of 345 thousand people were unemployed who had been unemployed three months earlier, while 125 thousand of them became unemployed, and 220 thousand left the labour market.

There are also two changes that can lead to higher employment: when people who have lost their job find work, and when people who were not previously part of the labour market seek and find employment. The total number of people that entered employment was 313 thousand in October, slightly lower than the number who ceased to be employed, at 345 thousand. The number of employed persons has therefore decreased by 32 thousand (11 thousand per month on average) over the past three months.

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.