In the municipality of Bernheze, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits has increased by almost 30 percent compared to last September. About three hundred residents have to survive on unemployment benefits. The increase was even greater in only a handful of other municipalities in our country. A cause for the increase in Bernheze is not known.
The figures are rosier for the municipality of Gemert-Bakel: here the number of people receiving unemployment benefits decreased by almost 15 percent to 254.
Throughout the Netherlands, the UWV (Employee Insurance Administration Institute) registered 187,400 people with unemployment benefits in September, compared to 172,000 a year earlier. That is a plus of almost 9 percent. Bernheze and Gemert-Bakel are well above and below respectively. More people have also found themselves without a job at home in the municipalities of Hilvarenbeek (26.3 percent increase, to 144 inhabitants in total), Altena (+24.2 percent, to 405 inhabitants) and Etten-Leur (+21.3 percent, to 490 people).
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The number of unemployment benefits increased most in the government sector and in industry. “The labor market currently presents a mixed picture,” says Rob Witjes, head of labor market information and advice at UWV. “On the one hand, there have never been as many people in paid work as now. On the other hand, there are currently more unemployed people looking for a job who were not doing so before.”
Witjes also sees more companies that have reported a proposed collective dismissal to UWV due to a reorganization to be implemented. According to him, this could increase unemployment. “We expect that the current time series, in which we have had more vacancies than unemployed for fifteen quarters in a row, will be interrupted in the short term. This does not alter the fact that the shortage and mismatch remain present on the labor market,” says Witjes.
For example, staff shortages in the construction sector in Brabant remain significant. In the second quarter of this year, there were 5,400 vacancies in this sector, mainly for plumbers, installers and gas, water, sanitary and heating technicians. Nowhere else in our country is the tension on the construction labor market greater.
Unemployment at highest level
The fact that more people have become unemployed is also in line with the latest data from Statistics Netherlands (CBS). This shows that unemployment in our country rose in September to the highest level in four years. According to Statistics Netherlands, there were 409,000 unemployed in September, the increase was especially noticeable among people over 25.
On average, the number of unemployed increased by 8,000 per month in the past three months. In August, 3.9 percent of the working population was without paid work, last month this was 4 percent.
Decrease in category up to 25 years
Compared to a year ago, unemployment is therefore mainly higher among people over 25. Last September, 3.1 percent of 25 to 44-year-olds were unemployed, which has risen to 3.4 percent. For people over 45, this is an increase from 2.1 to 2.6 percent. In the same period, unemployment among young people aged 15 to 25 fell slightly from 9 to 8.8 percent of the labor force.