Short answer: The labour shortage in the Netherlands has eased since 2022 but persists. In the second quarter of 2026 there were 95 vacancies per 100 unemployed (CBS), down from 142 in mid 2022; that quarter's 4.1% job vacancy rate was the highest among comparable EU countries (Eurostat). Hospitality and trade lead frontline vacancy rates (Q2 2026); among frontline sectors, transport and business services report staff shortages most often (July 2026).
Key takeaways
- Tension has fallen from 142 vacancies per 100 unemployed people (second quarter of 2022) to 95 (second quarter of 2026), yet the Dutch job vacancy rate of 4.1% is still about twice the EU's 2.0% (Eurostat, same quarter).
- Unemployment has edged up since June 2026, to 408,000 people or 4.0% in September 2026, about the level of a year earlier.
- Open vacancies fell 32% in hospitality and 27% in transport and storage from mid 2022 to mid 2026, but 41% of transport and storage firms still named a staff shortage as their main obstacle in July 2026.
- The headline numbers leave out 568,000 people working part time who wanted more hours and could start them (Q2 2026).
- Read official numbers by sector and region each quarter, next to your own speed of first contact.
On this page: Is there still a labour shortage in the Netherlands? · Which official numbers should you read, and what does each one measure? · Which frontline sectors are tightest in 2026? · Why do employers still feel short when vacancies are falling? · Where is the labour supply that the headline figures leave out? · Does the shortage differ by region? · What does this mean for frontline hiring and staffing agencies in 2026? · What can the data not tell you? · Conclusion · How Radius helps · Frequently asked questions
Frontline roles here means hourly and shift work in logistics, warehousing, retail, hospitality, cleaning, security and production. Official statistics have no such category, so we use the closest sectors and occupations and say where the fit is loose.
Is there still a labour shortage in the Netherlands?
Yes, but it is milder than in 2022 and still tight. At the end of June 2026, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) counted 375,000 open vacancies, 3,000 fewer than three months earlier, while unemployment fell by 17,000 to 396,000. That gives 95 vacancies for every 100 unemployed people, up from 91 in the first quarter (CBS, 30 July 2026). The figures are seasonally adjusted, and the 2026 vacancy figures are preliminary.
At the peak, in the second quarter of 2022, the ratio was 142. In 2019 its highest quarter was 68. So the Dutch labour market in 2026 is looser than at the peak but tighter than in any quarter from 2016 to the third quarter of 2021.
In September 2026, 408,000 people were unemployed, 4.0% of the labour force (seasonally adjusted), the same rate as in August. Unemployment rose by an average of 5,000 a month over three months, from 393,000 in June, while the number of people in paid work did not change. In September 2025 the figure was 409,000, so unemployment is back at roughly last year's level (CBS, 15 October 2026).
In the second quarter of 2026 the Netherlands had the highest job vacancy rate of the EU countries with comparable data, 4.1%, ahead of Belgium at 3.3%. The EU rate was 2.0% (not seasonally adjusted) (Eurostat, 15 September 2026).
The line "more vacancies than unemployed people" is out of date: on CBS's measure it has not been true since the third quarter of 2025, when the ratio fell to 97.
Vacancies per 100 unemployed people, NL
Above 100 there are more vacancies than unemployed people
Which official numbers should you read, and what does each one measure?
Each official measure answers a different question.
| Measure | Source | Latest period | Latest value | What it tells a frontline employer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vacancies per 100 unemployed | CBS | Q2 2026 | 95 (seasonally adjusted) | Open jobs for each person looking for work, nationally |
| Vacancy rate | CBS | Q2 2026 | 42 per 1,000 employee jobs (not seasonally adjusted) | How hard a sector hires relative to its size |
| Spanningsindicator (labour market tension) | UWV | Q2 2026 | 387,300 vacancies against 116,800 people on WW for under six months | Open jobs per recent WW claimant |
| Job vacancy rate | Eurostat | Q2 2026 | 4.1% (EU 2.0%), not seasonally adjusted | How the Netherlands compares within the EU |
| Staff shortage as main obstacle | CBS business survey | July 2026 | 32.8% of firms | How widely employers feel the shortage |
| Unemployment | CBS | September 2026 | 408,000, 4.0% (seasonally adjusted) | Whether the pool of jobseekers is growing |
Why do two vacancy totals exist for one quarter? The CBS headline of 375,000 (Q2 2026) is seasonally adjusted. UWV's 387,300 matches the unadjusted CBS count in StatLine (CBS StatLine 83599NED). UWV then divides open vacancies by the number of people who have received a WW unemployment benefit for less than six months (UWV, Q2 2026).
Worked calculation (our arithmetic from UWV's figures): 387,300 vacancies divided by 116,800 short term WW recipients gives about 3.3 vacancies per person in the second quarter of 2026, up from about 3.1 in the first (380,100 divided by 122,700).
Both readings are true at once; the UWV one is closer to what a recruiter meets on a Monday morning.
Which frontline sectors are tightest in 2026?
Hospitality and trade have the highest frontline vacancy rates. The table compares three official measures for the main frontline sectors.
Sources: open vacancies, seasonally adjusted, CBS StatLine 80474ned; vacancy rate, not seasonally adjusted, CBS StatLine 80567ned; staff shortage, CBS business survey, third quarter 2026, which covers businesses outside finance and utilities that could pick up to two obstacles. Changes are our calculation.
Hospitality still hires hard but feels it less. Its Q2 2026 vacancy rate of 54 is well above the national 42, yet the share of hospitality firms naming a staff shortage fell 10 percentage points from July 2025 to July 2026, the largest fall of any sector in the CBS survey table.
Trade has the most vacancies. At the end of June 2026 it had 70,500, just ahead of healthcare at 68,500 (CBS, 30 July 2026).
Transport and storage looks calm on vacancies and tense in the survey. Its Q2 2026 vacancy rate of 37 is below average, but in July 2026 40.9% of its firms named a staff shortage as their main obstacle.
Business services, where agencies, cleaning and security sit, reports the most strain. Its Q2 2026 vacancy rate is the lowest in the table, yet in July 2026 44.6% of business services firms named a staff shortage, second only to car trade and repair (57.1%) in the CBS survey table.
The occupation data adds one signal. In 2025 employers opened 99,400 new vacancies for transport and logistics occupations, down 19% from 2022. For cleaners and kitchen helpers the figure was 72,900 in both years, while new vacancies across all occupations fell 9% (CBS StatLine 85081NED). Demand for cleaning work has held steady while the wider market cooled.
Hiring in one of these sectors? See how Radius works for logistics, warehouse, cleaning, hospitality and security roles.
Why do employers still feel short when vacancies are falling?
Because vacancy counts miss speed, season, location and who fills the job.
Agency demand is recorded elsewhere. In CBS's sector tables, temporary employment agencies sit within rental and other business services (CBS StatLine 80474ned). When a distribution centre fills peak shifts through an agency, part of that demand may appear there rather than under transport and storage. That could explain why transport firms report shortages more often than their vacancy rate suggests; it is our reading, not a CBS finding.
Vacancies turn over quickly. In the second quarter of 2026, 355,000 new vacancies arose and 357,000 were filled. With about 375,000 open, a rough rule of thumb (open vacancies divided by vacancies filled per quarter, our arithmetic) puts the average vacancy at about one quarter open. A week's wait for a first reply uses up almost a tenth of that window.
Spring raises demand every year. UWV notes that since 2022 tension has risen in every second quarter, as agriculture, construction and hospitality hire seasonal workers before the summer (UWV, Q2 2026). Compare a quarter with the same quarter a year earlier before concluding the market has turned.
Unemployed people are not all available for your shift. CBS counts people as unemployed when they have no paid work, recently looked for it and can start soon. The national total says nothing about where they live, which hours they can work or which certificates they hold. More unemployed people may mean more applicants, not automatically more people who can reach a 05:30 start outside town. If early starts are part of the job, say so; we explain why in Tell Candidates About the 05:30 Start.
Where is the labour supply that the headline figures leave out?
Mostly among people working part time who want more hours. In the second quarter of 2026, 568,000 part time workers said they wanted more hours and could start them, 64,000 more than in the third quarter of 2024. They do not count as unemployed. Another 180,000 people without work had not looked recently, and 107,000 could not start straight away (CBS, 30 July 2026).
Labour supply the headline leaves out, Q2 2026
None of them counts among the 396,000 unemployed
For frontline employers this group may matter more than the unemployment total. A predictable extra shift block, or two short contracts combined into one, may reach people who already work. The data does not say how many would take frontline work, so treat it as a hypothesis to test in your advertising, not a pool to count on.
Does the shortage differ by region?
Yes: in Q2 2026 about half of all open vacancies were in the west. CBS regional figures are not seasonally adjusted, so compare with the same quarter a year earlier.
| Region | Open vacancies, Q2 2025 | Open vacancies, Q2 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | 402,700 | 387,300 | down 4% |
| West (Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Utrecht, Zeeland) | 205,200 | 195,000 | down 5% |
| Zuid-Holland | 83,900 | 78,800 | down 6% |
| Noord-Holland | 75,400 | 72,500 | down 4% |
| Noord-Brabant | 61,700 | 59,700 | down 3% |
| Flevoland | 8,300 | 8,600 | up 4% |
Source: CBS StatLine 83599NED, all economic activities, not seasonally adjusted. Changes are our calculation.
In Q2 2026 Flevoland was the only province with more open vacancies than a year earlier; Groningen was unchanged and every other province had fewer. A provincial count does not show how many jobseekers live within reach of a site, though. UWV also calculates its tension indicator by region (UWV, 2023), the better check before you open a site or plan a peak.
What does this mean for frontline hiring and staffing agencies in 2026?
Speed and evidence matter most where demand is still high.
- Plan from your sector and region, not the national headline. A transport employer in Zuid-Holland and a hotel in Flevoland face different markets.
- Treat speed as the variable you control. You cannot change the national ratio. You can change how long an applicant waits for a reply and an interview, as we argue in Your Hiring Is Not Too Fast. Your Evidence Arrives Too Late.
- Lead with hours, start times and location. The largest group outside the headline figures wants more hours.
- Agencies: read business services and temporary work together. Business services firms were among the most likely to name a staff shortage in July 2026, while the first CBS estimate showed 13,000 fewer jobs at temporary employment agencies in the second quarter of 2026 than in the first. Fewer agency jobs alongside persistent shortages suggests a matching problem as well as a supply problem. That is our reading, not a CBS conclusion.
- Check before the offer, and let a person decide. When candidates are scarce, losing one after the offer because a certificate or document issue surfaced late is expensive. See which checks can happen before the offer.
A quarterly labour market check on one page
| What to check | Where | Latest value (23 October 2026) | How often | Question for your team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vacancies per 100 unemployed | CBS quarterly labour market release | 95 (Q2 2026) | Quarterly | Is the national market getting tighter or looser? |
| Vacancy rate in your sector | CBS StatLine 80567ned | Hospitality 54; trade 50; transport and storage 37 (Q2 2026) | Quarterly | Is our sector hiring harder than average? |
| Open vacancies in your province | CBS StatLine 83599NED | Noord-Brabant 59,700 (Q2 2026) | Quarterly | How does this compare with the same quarter last year? |
| Staff shortage as main obstacle | CBS business survey | Transport and storage 40.9%; business services 44.6% (July 2026) | Quarterly | Are our clients feeling it more or less than a year ago? |
| Unemployment | CBS monthly release | 408,000, 4.0% (September 2026) | Monthly | Should we expect more applicants? |
| Your own funnel | Your applicant tracking system | Your figures | Weekly | Time to first contact; share interviewed; first shift attendance |
Illustrative example (invented numbers). An agency supplying order pickers to two distribution centres in Noord-Brabant plans the first quarter of 2027. The official data says demand is steady: provincial vacancies in Q2 2026 were down 3% on a year earlier and the transport and storage vacancy rate is below average. But in July 2026, 41% of transport and storage firms still named a staff shortage, so clients will keep asking for people. In its own records, the agency had 600 applicants last quarter; 45% got a first reply within two days, 30% completed an interview, and 70% of those placed turned up for their first shift. The market numbers explain the pressure; the funnel numbers show where the agency loses people. Fixing first contact comes before spending more on job boards.
What can the data not tell you?
It cannot tell you about your role, your site or your shift.
- Recent figures are preliminary. CBS revises them: in its 30 July 2026 release it lowered its first estimate of first quarter job growth in business services, excluding temporary employment agencies, from 10,000 to 5,000.
- Sectors are not occupations. Sector figures follow the employer, so a cleaner employed by a hospital counts in healthcare.
- The business survey measures perception. It shows how widely the shortage is felt, not how many people are missing.
- The newest quarter is not in yet. On 23 October 2026 the latest figures were Q2 2026 for vacancies and September for unemployment. CBS has scheduled Q3 vacancies for 30 October and October unemployment for 19 November 2026; Eurostat's next release is due on 16 December 2026.
Conclusion
The labour shortage in the Netherlands is no longer the extreme of 2022, and unemployment has crept up again since June 2026. But in the second quarter of 2026 the country still had the highest job vacancy rate among EU countries with comparable data, and the strain sits where frontline work sits: hospitality and trade by vacancy rate, transport and business services by what employers report. National numbers tell you how hard the market is; your own funnel tells you how much difficulty you add yourself. Read both every quarter, move fastest where your sector and region are tightest, and keep a person on every decision.
How Radius helps
Radius Hire is the AI hiring platform for frontline roles in the Netherlands, built so that a tight market does not force a choice between speed and evidence. Radius is new, so this section explains how the product works rather than claiming results.
- The AI Sourcer is built to bring applicants from the channels you connect, such as job boards, and from your own candidate records into one pipeline, with the source recorded.
- The AI Interviewer gives every applicant a short, structured voice interview they can take on their phone, whenever it suits them, in the language set for the role.
- Where the employer uses Radius Passport, identity and right to work are checked with a trusted verification partner and certificates are recorded with their expiry dates, so a recruiter can review the evidence before an offer.
- Radius never rejects a candidate on its own. A recruiter reviews the evidence and makes every hiring decision.
- Radius is built for staffing agencies that recruit for several clients and sites. How clients, branches and permissions are set up is agreed in the demo.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find official vacancy figures for my own sector?
Use CBS StatLine: table 80474ned for open vacancies by sector, 80567ned for the vacancy rate, 83599NED for provinces and 85081NED for new vacancies by occupation. UWV publishes its tension indicator by occupation group and region.
Why do CBS and UWV report different vacancy numbers for the same quarter?
Mostly seasonal adjustment and the comparison group. CBS's headline count is seasonally adjusted; UWV uses the unadjusted count and compares it with people on WW for less than six months, not with all unemployed people.
Is the Dutch labour shortage over now that unemployment is rising?
No. Unemployment of 4.0% in September 2026 is still low, there were 95 vacancies per 100 unemployed people in the second quarter of 2026, and almost a third of firms named a staff shortage as their main obstacle in July 2026.
Do the vacancy figures show demand for agency workers?
Only partly. CBS reports vacancies by the sector of the organisation that has them and counts temporary employment agencies within rental and other business services, so a warehouse covering peak shifts through an agency may show little of that demand under transport and storage.
When are the next official figures due?
CBS publishes unemployment monthly and vacancies quarterly, with third quarter 2026 vacancy figures scheduled for 30 October 2026 and October unemployment for 19 November 2026. Eurostat's next job vacancy release is due on 16 December 2026; the CBS business survey and UWV's indicator are quarterly.
Sources
- CBS (Statistics Netherlands). "Werkloosheid gedaald in tweede kwartaal 2026" (Unemployment fell in the second quarter of 2026). News release, 30 July 2026. https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2026/31/werkloosheid-gedaald-in-tweede-kwartaal-2026. Checked 22 October 2026. Vacancies, unemployment, vacancies per 100 unemployed, vacancy rate, vacancy flows, jobs, part time workers wanting more hours.
- CBS (Statistics Netherlands). "Unemployment stood at 408 thousand in September". News release, 15 October 2026. https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2026/42/unemployment-stood-at-408-thousand-in-september. Checked 22 October 2026. Monthly unemployment, September 2026.
- CBS StatLine. "Vacatures; seizoengecorrigeerd, SBI2008" (table 80474ned). Updated 30 July 2026. https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/cijfers/detail/80474ned. Checked 22 October 2026. Open vacancies by sector, Q2 2022 and Q2 2026.
- CBS StatLine. "Vacatures; vacaturegraad naar SBI 2008" (table 80567ned). Updated 30 July 2026. https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/cijfers/detail/80567ned. Checked 22 October 2026. Vacancy rate by sector, Q2 2026.
- CBS StatLine. "Openstaande vacatures; SBI 2008, regio" (table 83599NED). Updated 30 July 2026. https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/cijfers/detail/83599NED. Checked 22 October 2026. Open vacancies by region, not seasonally adjusted, Q2 2025 and Q2 2026.
- CBS StatLine. "Ontstane vacatures; beroepenindeling ROA-CBS 2014 (BRC 2014), SBI 2008" (table 85081NED). Updated 30 June 2026. https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/cijfers/detail/85081NED. Checked 22 October 2026. New vacancies by occupation, 2022 and 2025.
- CBS. "Conjunctuurenquête Nederland, derde kwartaal 2026: 6. Belemmeringen" (business survey, obstacles). Published 6 August 2026. https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/longread/rapportages/2026/conjunctuurenquete-nederland-derde-kwartaal-2026/6-belemmeringen. Checked 22 October 2026. Firms naming a staff shortage as main obstacle, July 2026 and July 2025.
- UWV. "Spanningsindicator: arbeidsmarkt krapper door seizoenseffect" (second quarter 2026). https://www.uwv.nl/nl/arbeidsmarktinformatie/trends-ontwikkelingen/spanningsindicator-arbeidsmarkt-iets-krapper-door-seizoenseffect. Checked 22 October 2026. Vacancies and short term WW recipients, Q1 and Q2 2026; seasonal pattern; method.
- UWV. "Spanningsindicator: seizoenseffecten vergroten krapte" (second quarter 2023). https://www.uwv.nl/nl/arbeidsmarktinformatie/trends-ontwikkelingen/spanningsindicator-seizoenseffecten-vergroten-krapte. Checked 22 October 2026. Regional and occupational calculation of the indicator.
- Eurostat. "Euro area job vacancy rate at 2.1%". Euro indicators, 15 September 2026. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-euro-indicators/w/3-15092026-bp. Checked 22 October 2026. Job vacancy rates, Q2 2026; next release date.