Unemployment remained at 4.0 percent in January

In addition to the 415 thousand unemployed persons, 3.2 million people were not actively seeking work or not immediately available for work in January. These people are not counted towards the labour force. Many of these are retirees and people who are unable to work due to illness or occupational disability. Averaged over the past three months, the number of people outside the labour force has risen by an average of 6 thousand per month.

UWV: number of unemployment benefits recorded up by 7.4 percent

At the end of January, the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) recorded 205.7 thousand current unemployment (WW) benefits. A total of 38.7 thousand new people were granted unemployment benefit and 24.4 thousand benefits were terminated.

The number of benefits granted is usually higher in January. One of the reasons is that there is less work during the winter months in a number of sectors, such as construction. Another reason is that many fixed-term contracts expire at the end of the year. In addition to the annual seasonal pattern, there has been an upward trend in the number of people receiving unemployment benefit. Since August 2023, the number of unemployment (WW) benefits recorded has risen every month, year on year. Also in January 2026, this number was higher than in January 2025 (up by 8.6 percent, 16.2 thousand unemployment benefits).

Slightly more people became unemployed than found work

Unemployment can increase or decrease due to four different changes in people’s circumstances. Two of these can lead to lower unemployment. The first change is when an unemployed person finds a job (148 thousand in January). The second is when an unemployed person stops seeking work and leaves the labour market (104 thousand in January). In January, there were 252 thousand people in work who had been unemployed three months earlier.