The number of government jobs must be distributed more evenly among the provinces. There is a large majority in the House of Representatives for this.
The CDA and the SGP came up with a proposal for a fairer distribution of employment in the central government, which includes jobs in Defense and the judiciary, among the provinces. “The provinces of Zeeland, Friesland, Flevoland, Drenthe and Limburg are particularly underserved”, the parties state.
Drenthe has 7,944 fte in government jobs. Only in the provinces of Zeeland, Flevoland and Friesland there are fewer. The province of South Holland is the leader with almost 95,000 government jobs. There are a total of 321,397 jobs with the government in the Netherlands.
Except for Forum for Democracy, all parties in the House of Representatives voted in favor of the CDA and SGP proposal.
Most government jobs within Drenthe can be found at the Ministry of Defense. This concerns 2,976 FTEs.
Government employment has increased by 3 percent in Drenthe in the past year. There is also an expected increase of 3 percent in the next four years. With this, Drenthe has the largest increase. But the number of people with a government job remains far behind with provinces such as Gelderland, Noord-Brabant, Utrecht, Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland.
The number of jobs at Defense is also expected to increase in Drenthe, to 3,023 in 2026. That is despite the planned closure of the barracks in Assen. Defense wants to get rid of that complex, but wants to house the soldiers at the barracks in Havelte.
A spokesperson for the province of Drenthe says that the number of government jobs in the province has fallen by a quarter in fifteen years. “What is not included in those figures, but we do count as government jobs, is the job loss due to, for example, turning off the gas tap. That has cost employment in both Groningen and Drenthe.”
Now that the CDA and SGP proposal has been adopted, the cabinet is being called on to work towards ensuring that the provinces of Zeeland, Friesland, Flevoland, Drenthe and Limburg receive a more proportional share in government employment. There should also be a guideline for this.