Dutch unemployment rises to 408,000 as rate holds at 4.0%

The Netherlands had 408,000 unemployed people in September, while the number of people in work remained broadly stable, according to new figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS). Unemployment rose by an average of 5,000 a month over the previous three months, but the unemployment rate held at 4.0 per cent, unchanged from August. [1]

CBS said 3.2 million people were outside the labour force because they had not recently looked for work, were not immediately available, or both. The number of people in work has remained close to 9.8 million for almost three years, it said. [1]

The latest three-month figures show more people entering unemployment than leaving it. Some 247,000 people were unemployed in September after losing a job or starting to look for work without finding one; 232,000 people who had been unemployed three months earlier were no longer so. Of those leaving unemployment, 140,000 found work and 92,000 stopped looking and left the labour force. [1]

Separately, the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) recorded 197,100 continuing unemployment-benefit claims at the end of September, 1.2 per cent more than a month earlier. CBS cautions that benefit claims and its labour-force unemployment measure are not directly comparable. UWV also revised benefit figures from January 2026 after updating its data system, so they should not be compared directly with figures before that month, although the agency says the differences are small. [1]