Unemployment slightly down in November

In November, 3.6 million people aged 15 to 74 years did not have paid work for a variety of reasons. Aside from the unemployed, 3.3 million people were not looking and/or immediately available for work recently; they are not counted towards the labour force. These are mainly retirees and people unable to work due to illness or disability. This inactive labour force has dropped by an average of 11 thousand per month over the past three months.

Labour force exceeding 10 million for the first time

In November, the Dutch labour force included more than 10 million people for the first time. The term labour force refers to all people who either have paid work or are unemployed, i.e. are seeking and available for work. This means that over three quarters of the population aged 15 to 74 years are included in the labour force. This so-called gross labour force participation rate (75.3 percent) is currently at the highest level ever recorded since the series of figures started almost two decades ago.

At the same time, the number of non-employed (the sum of the unemployed and the people outside the labour force) has never been so low over this 20 year-period. At 3.6 million, in November this number was almost 0.5 million lower than at the start of the series. Job opportunities for the non-employed have increased in recent years.

An ever smaller share of the non-employed are looking and available for work.

Unemployment rate down to 3.6 percent in November

In order to enable comparison of cyclical developments in the labour market across countries, the unemployment indicator of the International Labour Organization (ILO) is used as a measure. According to this indicator, the unemployed are those who are not in paid work but have been looking recently and are immediately available. This figure refers to the population aged 15 to 74 years. In April of this year, unemployment reached 3.2 percent, the lowest rate in the series with monthly figures as of 2003. It subsequently increased to 3.8 percent in September. In October and November, unemployment declined again. In November 2022, 364 thousand people were unemployed.

UWV: fewer unemployment benefits in November

At the end of November 2022, UWV issued 144.9 thousand current WW benefits. This represents a decline of 4,600 relative to the end of October (-3.1 percent). After a long continuous period of decline, which started in February 2022, the number of WW benefits stabilised in September. The number has fallen again since October.

UWV: decline among all age categories

In November, the number of WW benefits fell across all age categories. The largest percentage decrease relative to October occurred in the 15-24 age category (-6.0 percent). As the number of WW benefit recipients among young people is limited, this is a marginal decrease in absolute terms (400 benefits).

Year on year, the number of WW benefits fell most sharply among 45 to 54-year-olds (-30.9 percent) and among the over-55s (-24.9 percent).

More job gains and smaller inflow from inactive to employed labour force

Between August and November, unemployment declined by 14 thousand (5 thousand per month on average). The decline in unemployment over the past three months is the result of underlying flows between the active, unemployed and inactive labour force. This is visualised in the diagram below.

The diagram shows that unemployment may decrease not only because more unemployed find a job than employed people lose jobs, but also because more people stop seeking work than start seeking work.

In November, the net outflow from unemployment to employment came out at 43 thousand. Earlier this year (between June and September), the inflow of employed who lost their job increased, while the flow from unemployed to employed remained virtually unchanged. On balance, this resulted in a relative small outflow from unemployment to employment in August and September. In October and November, the flow from employment to unemployment declined, while the flow in the opposite direction showed an increase again.

In November, the net inflow from inactive to unemployed labour force was 28 thousand. This was lower than in October (33 thousand) and also lower than in the months of May through September. Net inflow peaked at 61 thousand in August. Due to the larger outflow into employment and the smaller net inflow from the inactive labour force, unemployment fell from 378 thousand in August to 364 thousand in November, i.e. a decline of 14 thousand.

Every month, CBS publishes figures on the Dutch labour force in accordance with international guidelines. The corresponding indicators, i.e. the employed and unemployed labour force, are used around the world to describe cyclical developments on the labour market. Monthly figures are essential in this respect. In addition, UWV issues its own monthly figures on unemployment benefits. Figures released by UWV do not correspond one-to-one with the labour force indicators.