Labour market less tight in the first quarter of 2025

The number of job vacancies decreased by 7,000 in the first quarter of 2025, while the number of unemployed rose by 16,000. This made the labour market less tight.

There were 101 job vacancies for every 100 unemployed persons. The total number of jobs fell slightly for the first time in over four years (-14,000), according to new data from CBS (Dutch Central Office of Statistics).

At the end of the first quarter, there were 395,000 job vacancies—7,000 fewer than in the fourth quarter of 2024. That previous quarter had seen an increase of 4,000, the first rise since mid-2022. Most vacancies are in trade, healthcare, and business services - together accounting for more than half of all open positions.

Largest vacancy declines in industry and trade

In most sectors, the number of vacancies decreased slightly by about 1,000 or remained stable in the first quarter. Industry and trade saw the largest declines -2,000 fewer vacancies each - leaving 31,000 and 71,000 vacancies open, respectively, at the end of the quarter.

More vacancies in financial services and construction

Vacancies in financial services and construction rose by 2,000 each, resulting in 10,000 and 30,000 open positions at the end of the first quarter, respectively.

Fewer new and more filled vacancies

In the first quarter, 365,000 new vacancies emerged - 2,000 fewer than in the previous quarter. A total of 372,000 vacancies were filled, 9,000 more than the quarter before.

Vacancy rate increases

The vacancy rate increased slightly to 44, meaning there were 44 vacancies per 1,000 employee jobs. Construction continued to have the highest vacancy rate (81). Education had the lowest rate at 17 vacancies per 1,000 jobs.

Decline in self-employment jobs

Total employment fell by 14,000 jobs in the first quarter - a 0.1% drop and the first since Q4 of 2020. This decline was driven by a drop of 52,000 self-employment jobs (-2.0%), in line with expectations that businesses will hire fewer freelancers in 2025. The total number of self-employed jobs was over 2.5 million, representing more than 1 in 5 jobs. Employee jobs increased by 38,000 (+0.4%) to over 9.1 million.

Fewer jobs in several sectors

The number of jobs declined in trade, transport, and hospitality by 23,000 (-0.8%). In this sector, both employee and self-employed jobs decreased. Other sectors with fewer jobs included healthcare (-7,000), construction (-5,000), industry and education (both -3,000). Public administration added 6,000 jobs in the first quarter (all employee positions). Employment also rose in temporary employment (+5,000) and ICT (+4,000).

Decline in hours worked

Employees and self-employed individuals worked over 3.7 billion hours in the first quarter - seasonally adjusted, 0.5% less than in the previous quarter. Self-employed hours declined the most, by 1.8%, while employee hours dropped 0.2%.

Increased unemployment

There were 390,000 unemployed people in Q1 - 3.8% of the labour force - up from 3.7% in the previous quarter. Unemployed persons are those without paid work who have recently sought work and are available on short notice. Unemployment rose across all age groups (15-25, 25-45, and 45-75 years).

More new job seekers

Unemployment figures reflect underlying flows between employment, unemployment, and those who are not active in the labour force. More people became unemployed after starting to look for work without immediately finding a job (moving from non-labour force to unemployed). On balance, this resulted in an inflow of 38,000 unemployed, coming from the non-labour force. In the previous quarter, this inflow was 23,000. The non-labour force consists of people who have not recently sought work and/or who were not directly available. Conversely, more unemployed persons found jobs than workers became unemployed, reducing unemployment by 22,000 in the first quarter – almost similar to the figures in the previous quarter (-23,000). Altogether, these flows led to a net increase of 16,000 unemployed.

Mainly more short-term unemployment

Long-term unemployment (one year or more) rose slightly from 60,000 to 63,000 in the first quarter. Short-term unemployment (less than a year) increased from 314,000 to 328,000. Long-term unemployment remained 16% of total unemployment, unchanged from the previous quarter.

Unused labour potential increased

People without work who either have not recently sought a job or are not immediately available have not been included in the unemployment figures. Part-time workers who want to work more have also been excluded. CBS does track these groups as part of the so-called unused labour potential.

The unused labour potential consists of four groups. In addition to 390,000 unemployed this concerns 179,000 who were available for work but had not searched recently, 104,000 who had searched but were not available. The latter groups are also called semi-unemployed. The fourth group consisted of 518,000 underemployed part-time workers with paid jobs, who indicated that they are willing to work more hours and are immediately available for these extra hours.

The increase in unused labour potential is due to more unemployed and underemployed part-timers. The number of semi-unemployed decreased slightly.