A lot more employers struggle to fill jobs
- 08 Apr 2020
The Netherlands is happy with the improving economy. But employers are now also experiencing the downside. Care, construction, education, ICT and technology: they can all no longer deny the shortage on the labor market. A direct result of economic growth, but also of aging and hazing.
Labor shortage
A shortage of technical functions such as plumbers, electricians and maintenance technicians will no longer surprise you. The same applies for system developers and programmers with knowledge of specific programming languages (e.g. net and java). However, education, healthcare, catering and the transport sector can now also be added to this list. Even construction, a sector that until recently had a crisis, suffers from a shortage of skilled workers. The growing demand for masons and carpenters stems from the improving housing market.
The end is not yet at the horizon.
And the shortage seems to continue for years to come, at least, according to the UWV in its study “Promising professions: where is the labor market tight? National overview “. This statement is supported by recently published figures from Statistics Netherlands. At the end of December 2016, 169,000 unfilled vacancies were registered in the Netherlands. The number of unfilled vacancies has not been that high since 2008.
It takes longer to fulfill a vacancy
Statistics Netherlands reports the following, : “The number of vacancies that are created or filled in the course of a quarter is much higher than the average number of unfilled vacancies. This created 238,000 vacancies in the past quarter and 230,000 were filled. These are the highest numbers in 8 years. The fact that the number of unfilled vacancies is increasing faster, than the number of filled vacancies, indicates that vacancies are longer open before they are filled.
