The number of people on unemployment benefit decreased in all Northern provinces last month, the UWV reports. There is a persistently high demand for personnel in ICT in particular.
In Drenthe, the number of unemployment benefit recipients fell by 3.2 percent (137) to 4,146 in July. In Groningen the decrease was somewhat smaller at 0.7 percent (38 benefits). There are now 5,214 people without work in that province, which is 1.6 percent of the working population. In Friesland, 5,359 benefits were paid out during this period.
Nationally, the number of unemployment benefits also decreased last month. At the end of July, the Netherlands had 152,000 (1.5 percent of the working population). That is 627 fewer than in June (-0.4 percent). Last year, the Netherlands had 156,600 unemployment benefits in July. As a result, unemployment benefits in the Netherlands fell on an annual basis by 4,669 benefits, or 3 percent.
The construction and temporary employment sector in particular are doing better
Particularly in the temporary employment sector and in construction, the number of benefits decreased, while the number in education increased. According to the UWV, this is due to expiring annual contracts for the school holidays.
The benefit organization says that there will continue to be a great demand for personnel, especially in the ICT sector throughout the country. This is despite the fact that the number of ICT professionals in our country is increasing every year and has increased by 39 percent after the corona pandemic. In the Netherlands, this industry now employs some 552,000 people. These can be found at ICT companies, the government, banks and in healthcare.
More and more IT specialists needed
Due to increasing digitization and the rising threat of cyber attacks, the demand for ICT professionals will continue to grow strongly in the coming years. More and more sectors depend on them. There are more than 600 vacancies in Groningen, compared to more than 250 in Drenthe. These include software and application specialists, data analysts and network and security specialists.
They are mainly looking for people with a university or higher vocational education who want a full-time job. These candidates are hard to find, according to the UWV. ,,Applicants have insufficient professional knowledge or do not have the necessary work experience. Many vacancies are specialist in nature, which means that school-leavers, for example, also do not meet the wishes of employers. In order to be able to fill the vacancies, they now have to adjust their requirements more often and train candidates internally.”
Few people over 55
The number of ICT workers on unemployment benefits has fallen sharply since 2018, but has risen slightly in recent months, the UWV notes. Incidentally, relatively few people over the age of 55 work in ICT. And that is a pity, because research shows that many people in this group are quite willing to continue working after their retirement.
To tackle the staff shortages, the benefits agency is mainly thinking of retraining and guidance programs and keeping employees employed after their retirement age.