More than 225 thousand people participate in municipal reintegration programmes

Under the Employment and Assistance Act, municipal authorities are responsible for activation and reintegration of particular categories of unemployed. The authorities have various facilities at their disposal. By the end of June this year, more than 225 thousand unemployed in the Netherlands participated in a reintegration programme offered by municipal authorities.

More women than men

Reintegration programmes aim at a swift re-entry of unemployed into the labour market. Municipalities offer various facilities like training, work experience positions and day care centres. By the end of June 2007, female reintegration programme participants outnumbered their male counterparts. More than half of participants were forty years or older. There were about as many non-western as native Dutch participants.

Number of municipal reintegration programmes, 30 June 2007

Men more often have wage costs subsidised jobs

In nearly one in five cases, employers of reintegration programme participants received a wage costs subsidy from the municipality. In these cases, the persons involved had regular employment contracts. Men more often than women had wage costs subsidised jobs. Employers of people over 40 also often received wage costs subsidy. Native Dutch more often had subsidised jobs than people with a non-western background.

Most reintegration programme participants in Rotterdam

The number of unemployed is relatively high in the major Dutch cities. A large proportion of reintegration programme participants (30 percent) indeed lived in one of the five major cities, i.e. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht or Tilburg. Altogether, 65 thousand people living in these cities used one or more facilities offered by the reintegration programme. With over 26 thousand, Rotterdam had the largest number of participants.

Number of reintegration participants in top five of municipalities, 30 June 2007

Antoinette van Poeijer