Whatever sector you look in, the vacancies are currently flying around your ears. But the big question is: where has all that staff gone? According to labor market expert Ton Wilthagen of Tilburg University, we have actually known the answer for years.
“We are ageing,” says the professor. “That is the main cause. And we see the effect of that stronger every year.” Simply put, more and more people are retiring, while fewer workers at the bottom are joining to fill their spots.
“And that is a trend that we will continue to see until 2050,” adds Wilthagen. A solution is therefore not obvious. “Even if you send the pastor door to door, just like in the old days, to say that more children should come, they will only find their first job in about twenty years.”
“It is said that the Dutch have the lowest work ethic in the world.”
According to Wilthagen, another cause lies in our culture. “If you look at the percentage of Dutch people who work, we are in the top 3 in Europe. But if you compare the number of hours we work, we are in the bottom three.”
So we are a real part-time country. “It is sometimes said that the Dutch have the lowest work ethic in the world. A bit disrespectful and unfair. But it is true that we find other activities besides our work very important here. Think of raising the children ourselves, hobbies or just leisure.”
“People who have left the catering industry are now barely returning.”
But those are not recent phenomena. So why are we noticing this enormous shortage of employees right now? “Corona has definitely been a catalyst, especially for certain sectors, such as the catering industry. The people who left there are now barely returning. Simply because they now earn more.”
But recruiting staff is now a major task in other sectors as well. “That’s because of the huge economic boost we’ve seen after the lockdowns. People want to catch up on all kinds of things, which means that staff is needed everywhere. The demand is just incredibly high.”
Then the upcoming summer corona wave will not exactly help. “At the moment absenteeism is already high, due to the enormous work pressure. It is expected that a lot of people will drop out with an infection in the future. But there are no figures to fill their place.”
“They expect a thousand more deaths in the emergency room.”
It looks like a negative spiral, which we can’t get out of anytime soon. And now it is no longer only the employers who suffer from the shortage. “Everyone is noticing it now. The childcare has to close, holidays threaten to be cancelled, they expect a thousand extra deaths in the emergency room because there are not enough specialists around.”
But what should happen now, according to Wilthagen? “It would be good if politics were clearer about this. Otherwise we will all continue to walk around with that question, where all employees have suddenly gone. We have had countless press conferences about the corona crisis, perhaps something like this would also be good here. facing inconvenient truth.”