The demand for staff is increasing everywhere

(Almost) free childcare, 10,000 new homes every year, and reinforcements for schools with learning disabilities. The plans of the new cabinet are ambitious: Rutte IV wants to invest billions in, in addition to much more, education, construction and childcare. But who is going to take care of all those children? Build the houses, teach the students?

The personnel shortages in these sectors are already large, as is the historical tightness of the labor market as a whole. Never before have there been so many vacancies, according to figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) this week: for every 100 unemployed there are currently 126 vacancies.

Many will already feel the consequences of the shortages in daily life. Sometimes the childcare center closes for a day, or a restaurant opens one day a week less. Sometimes fewer trains run because there are too few traffic controllers.

The shortages are only expected to increase. The population is aging and many people will retire in the coming years. In the coalition agreement, the new cabinet acknowledges that the deficits also make it a “challenge” for the government “to realize the ambitions in this coalition agreement.” The cabinet wants to ‘guide more people into work’ and ‘support’ retraining and further training for professions that are struggling with shortages. To attract more teachers, there will be “better working conditions” – including pay increases.

What can employers do? Higher wages and better working conditions are often mentioned. Education can also help. “That could focus even better on training for shortage professions,” says Rob Witjes of the UWV benefits agency.

And then there are the estimated million Dutch people who are unemployed or who want to work more hours. They are called the ‘untapped potential’ by Statistics Netherlands. According to Rob Witjes, employers can recruit a lot more from this group, and provide them with better guidance when entering employment. “It’s a bit of a buzzword, but employers can look much more at competences instead of diplomas. If you stick to narrow demands, you won’t get there.”

Primary education vacancies more than doubled

It’s hard to fill vacancies, and not just a little bit. Although the overall shortage seems small compared to other professions, the number of unfilled vacancies for primary school teachers in the third quarter was no less than 115 percent higher than a year earlier. The increases are also in double digits in childcare and teaching assistants and in care. In construction, the deficit even doubled in one year.

Demand for technical personnel continues to increase

Meanwhile, there are also new vacancies every week This can be seen, for example, in figures from Jobfeed, which collects online vacancies. For professions such as primary school teachers or nurses/carers, that number appears to be fairly stable. The number of new vacancies has increased considerably in technical professions in construction and installation, and in childcare.

Labor market now ‘very tight’

After a brief decline at the start of the pandemic, the tension in the labor market is back on track. In the second quarter of this year, the number of vacancies exceeded the number of unemployed for the first time, and this is continuing. This means that the UWV’s Tension Indicator, which compares unemployment with the number of vacancies, is almost in the ‘very tight‘ zone.