An increasing share of jobs are located in economic core areas and cities, such as the Randstad and Eindhoven. However, this shift is not at the expense of employment in the rest of the Netherlands. The number of jobs increased almost everywhere between 1996 and 2022, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) concluded on Thursday. a report about employment in the Netherlands between 1996 and 2022.
The research paints a new picture of the consequences of the increasing concentration of jobs for the rest of the Netherlands. It is feared that this shift will be at the expense of employment elsewhere, causing residents to decide to move away and the provision of facilities for those left behind to decline. But that assumption is incorrect, says the PBL. Population decline is indeed a problem for the level of facilities, but the question is whether combating the spatial concentration of jobs will help tackle that problem. However, according to the institute, an increasingly unequal distribution of jobs may be politically undesirable, regardless of whether it has negative consequences.
The agency also qualifies the image that jobs are massively concentrated throughout the Randstad. It is mainly Amsterdam that is the major job driver within that region. In several Randstad municipalities, including Rotterdam, there will be a smaller share of all jobs in the Netherlands in 2022 than in 1996. At the same time, there are municipalities outside the Randstad where that share actually grew, and according to the PBL, these are not just urban areas.
Amsterdam is also the municipality where employment has increased the most in recent decades, with 285,000 jobs. In fifteen municipalities the number of jobs was lower that year than in 1996. This concerns both municipalities on the edges of the country (Brunssum, Den Helder, Vlissingen, Weert, Hulst, Geertruidenberg and Eemsdelta) and municipalities in the Randstad (Leidschendam). -Voorburg, Rijswijk, Heemstede, Bloemendaal, Zoeterwoude, Drechterland and Aalsmeer).