In no EU country do as many workers hold a second job as in the Netherlands. That makes the second job a signal most employers leave unread. Our conclusion: a candidate who combines jobs shows available hours and a willingness to work them, and an employer that rosters on small contracts is quietly sharing its staff with other employers.
Stacking is normal here
Eurostat counts how many workers hold a job besides their main one. In 2025 the Netherlands scored highest in the EU, well above the European average and clearly above Germany. Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden follow. Italy and Bulgaria sit at the bottom.
Why the Netherlands
The explanation sits close to another Dutch record: nowhere in Europe is so much work done part-time. Small main jobs leave room for a second one, and some sectors are built on rosters of a few short shifts a week. The countries near the top share that pattern of high participation and flexible hours. At the bottom sit countries where a job is nearly always full-time and a second one hardly fits.
What the second job tells you
Someone who combines jobs shows several things. There are hours to spare. There is willingness to work them. And the main employer apparently offers no room or no reason for them. A recruiter who asks about the second job, instead of seeing it as a distraction, learns about availability and appetite for work.
For employers with small contracts the same fact is a risk. Their part-timer with a second job elsewhere is already partly inside another organisation. When that other employer offers more hours, the extension there becomes a departure here. The initiative lies with whoever asks first.
What this does not show
The figure counts jobs, not motives. A specialist who teaches on the side and a courier stacking small contracts to get by both count. A second job is not by definition spare capacity: someone already working full hours across jobs has nothing left. The hours behind the jobs are not part of this dataset, and the boundary between paid side work and a hobby is soft in a survey. Our reading would change if hours data showed that most stackers already work a full week.
What you can do
- Ask candidates about other jobs and the hours behind them. Treat the answer as information, not as a red flag.
- Ask your own part-timers whether they want more hours, before another employer does.
- Offer a larger contract to a proven part-timer before you open a new vacancy. It is faster than recruiting someone new.
- Review roles built on very small contracts. If they keep losing people, larger contracts may cost less than constant replacement.