In Dutch financial services, 8,500 people were on unemployment benefit in mid-2026, 1,400 more than a year earlier. That is almost 20% more. Vacancies fell to 7,500, 40% below the peak of almost 13,000 in 2022. That is according to UWV, the Dutch employee insurance agency.
Banks are reorganising
In 2025 more than 3,000 bank employees were covered by collective dismissal notices. Benefit claims are rising fastest among customer contact staff and analysts who check clients for money laundering. Banks expect AI to take over a fifth of that checking work within two years. UWV calls that not yet certain.
The sector employs almost 217,000 people, nearly half of them at banks. At the same time demand is growing for ICT staff, lawyers and financial advisers.
Where they go
According to UWV, analysts who checked clients move to compliance, business analysis, control and legal roles. Every sector needs those. An analyst who spent years assessing files for risk knows how supervision works and how to document a decision.
What you can do
- For a compliance, control or analyst role, look at candidates from a bank. Their experience with rules and supervision is scarce outside the sector.
- Ask about the work, not the title. A job title at a bank says little about what someone actually did.
- Keep the process short: two interviews and a decision within three weeks.
Sources: UWV, financial services (in Dutch); UWV, more dismissals expected at banks (in Dutch). CBS reclassified sectors in January 2024, which breaks the series.
Pearson & Partners locates and qualifies experienced finance professionals, also for employers outside the sector.