Job vacancies rise slightly

• 3 thousand job vacancies
• Increase only in private sector

According to figures released by Statistics Netherlands today, there were 97 thousand job vacancies in the Netherlands at the end of December 2013. The figure has been corrected for seasonal effects.

The increase in the number of vacant jobs was completely accounted for by the private sector, where the number of vacancies rose in nearly all branches of industry. The only exception was the financial sector, where the number of available jobs fell. At the end of 2013 this sector had 6 thousand job vacancies. The number of vacancies in the government sector remained at the same level.

Developments in the number of job vacancies are determined by the number of new vacancies and the number filled. In the last quarter of 2014, 146 thousand jobs became vacant, one thousand more than twelve months previously. This year-on-year increase in the number of new vacancies is the first for two years. The number of vacancies filled was still smaller in the fourth quarter than in the same quarter in 2012, at 149 thousand.