Unemployment falls slighty

An average 478 thousand people in the Netherlands were unemployed in the period June-August 2004. Seasonal effects always have an upward effect on unemployment at this time of year. Once these effects are removed,  the unemployed labour force comes to 470 thousand. This is 6 thousand lower than in the period May-July 2004. According to figures from Statistics Netherlands, this puts unemployment nearly back at the level of six months previously.

Year-on-year rise continues to fall

Unemployment was 74 thousand higher in June-August 2004 than twelve months previously. This is the fifth month in succession that the size of the year-on-year increase diminished. At the beginning of the year the increase was still as high as 128 thousand. In the last three months an average 6.2 percent of the labour force were unemployed. In the same period last year this was 5.3 percent.

Unemployment stable among 25-44 year-old men

Unemployment among men in the age group 25-44 years has been around 115 thousand since the end of 2003. In the two preceding years unemployment in this category rose from 51 thousand to 117 thousand. Other age groups have also been fairly stable in the last six months, although with larger fluctuations.

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