The shortage on the labor market is becoming increasingly acute: there are now 133 vacancies out of 100 unemployed. The workload is high in healthcare, education, ICT and the hospitality industry, among others. How do we solve that problem?
There is no immediate solution, professor of work psychology Fred Zijlstra and chairman of the SME Limburg entrepreneurial organization Martijn van Helvert tell L1.
More working hours
Nowhere in Europe are fewer hours worked than in the Netherlands. For example, would it be an idea to work more hours? According to Zijlstra, that is not just an option. “We have to see what is feasible. We now see that work demands a lot from people and that it is often very intensive. So you can’t ask everyone to work 40 hours a week again.”
Van Helvert doesn’t like that either. “Not going back to a 40-hour working week, but more customization. If you facilitate that properly, you can have someone who now works 16 hours a week, maybe later on 24 hours a week.”
Childcare
According to Professor Zijlstra, another problem in the labor market is the costs of childcare. As a result, a number of people, especially mothers, are staying out of the labor market, he says. “Mothers who are on the sidelines and who could work have to pay, so that group also deserves our attention.”
Workload
In addition, more than one million people in the Netherlands are ‘on the sidelines’ due to, among other things, unemployment and overstrain. Zijlstra: “The bar for a job on the labor market is now much higher than it used to be. The demands we place on positions are far too high.” That can be done differently, and according to the professor it will also benefit workers. “Work is often too intensive and complex for them. And so there are too many dropouts.”
Migrant workers
According to MKB-Limburg chairman Van Helvert, labor migrants could partly solve the shortage on the labor market. But that’s not easy either. “The problem with the migrant workers remains housing. If we don’t already have housing for our children and grandchildren, what if we bring large groups of migrants here to work for us?”
Zijlstra also sees it this way: “If you already see that many labor migrants live in appalling conditions, then this is not the best solution, unless we can do something about the preconditions for that housing.”