Slightly more people unemployed in August

In August 2026, 408,000 people in the Netherlands did not have a job but were looking for work. This number increased by an average of 3,000 per month over the past three months. There are also fewer people in paid employment: the number has fallen by about 1,000 each month.

These figures come from Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, CBS). At the end of August, the Employee Insurance Agency (Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemersverzekeringen, UWV) registered 195,000 people receiving unemployment benefits. That is slightly more benefits than in July.

This month, more new benefits were granted than were terminated. The number of unemployed people has been gradually increasing since the beginning of 2023. In April 2023, there were 343,000 unemployed people; now there are 408,000.

In addition to this group, 3.2 million people do not work and are not actively looking for work or are unable to work. These people are not counted as jobseekers. For example, they may be retired or ill.

The number of people outside the labor force—that is, people who do not work and are not looking for work—has remained roughly unchanged since the beginning of 2023, at around 3.2 million. The number of people in employment remains stable. It has been around 9.8 million for nearly three years.

More people become unemployed because they lose their jobs or because they have now started looking for work. In August, 250,000 people were unemployed who had not been unemployed three months earlier. Some people find work again (142,000) or stop looking for work (99,000).

As a result, 241,000 people are no longer unemployed even though they were unemployed three months earlier. Because more people become unemployed than find work again, the number of unemployed people increases by an average of 3,000 per month. Statistics Netherlands and the Employee Insurance Agency publish new monthly figures on how many people are working, looking for work, or receiving benefits.