Earlier estimates of quarterly economic growth and labour market

The request to publish the estimates at an earlier date came from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, which publishes a first estimate of economic growth for the European Union as a whole and for a number of member states 30 days after the end of each quarter. The Netherlands was the largest economy that was not in line with other EU partners. The request for the figures to be released earlier was also made by the media and policymakers. CBS is now responding to the need of its key users.

Shorter lead times

The availability of source statistics made it possible to make the move to an earlier publication date. In addition, time was saved by speeding up the process, which has reduced the lead time of the quarterly GDP estimate. The methodology used for producing the estimates has not changed and the level of detail to be published also remains the same. This also applies to the estimates of a number of labour market indicators published on the same day.

Starting 30 April, the following StatLine tables will be published at an earlier date:

National accounts:

GDP, output and expenditures; value

GDP, output and expenditures; changes

Labour market accounts:

Employment; quarterly, sex, National Accounts

Compensation of employees, employment; quarterly, National Accounts

Employment; economic activity, quarterly, National Accounts

Job vacancies:

Vacancies; SIC 2008, provinces

Vacancies; SIC 2008; by economic activity and business size

Vacancies; SIC2008; private sector

Vacancies; seasonally adjusted; SIC 2008

Vacancies; flow figures; seasonally adjusted

Vacancies; vacancy rate by SIC 2008

Vacancies (new and filled); government and education

Quality maintained

The past few quarters have been used to thoroughly evaluate the quality of the figures. The tests for both economic growth and the labour market showed that the adjustment between the first estimate after 30 days and the second estimate after 85 days after quarter-end remained limited. In absolute terms, the adjustment of the second estimate of economic growth relative to the first estimate, 45 days after quarter-end has averaged 0.1 percentage points over the past five years (2019-2024). During the test phase, the adjustment remained at the same level, on average. The regular estimate will continue to be published 85 days after each quarter.

Publication times

As with previous estimates, the labour market figures will be released at 6.30 a.m. on 30 April, followed by the estimate of economic growth at 9.30 a.m. The labour market estimate will be available under embargo upon request. This does not apply to the economic growth estimate.