More and more new vacancies are emerging in the healthcare sector, while fewer and fewer are being filled. This is evident from figures published on Friday by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In the second quarter of 2019 there were still 28 vacancies for the thousand care jobs, in the same quarter of this year there were 44. There are relatively many vacancies in mental health care in particular.
The number of unfilled care vacancies also continues to rise sharply in absolute terms. In the past quarter there were 67,000 vacant care jobs, while there were still 37,700 in the third quarter of 2019. That is an increase of almost 80 percent. Statistics Netherlands compares this year’s figures with 2019 because that was the last ‘normal’ year before the corona pandemic.
By far the most vacancies have arisen in the past three years in nursing, care and home care. It is also the largest sector within the healthcare sector. In the third quarter of 2022, more than sixteen thousand vacancies arose there, while three years earlier there were just over ten thousand. In no industry — not in the care of the disabled, nor in hospitals — did the number of vacancies increase so quickly.
Together with the shortage of personnel in the healthcare sector, the workload is also increasing. On average, in the second quarter of 2022, half of all employees in the healthcare sector felt, or even much too high, CBS previously reported. The experienced workload in childcare was the highest of all healthcare sectors, while the House of Representatives wants to make childcare free from 2025. People who work in youth care or as general practitioners are also having a hard time.
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