Of Dutch employees, 78.8% said in 2025 that they could easily find a job with another employer. In 2014 it was 53.2%; under 45 it is now above 84%. That comes to more than 6 million people. At the same time, only 4.0% actually change employer per quarter, and 2.2% of permanent staff. Between being able to and doing sits a silent majority that knows its value, is satisfied with its work (78.6%) and applies nowhere. Our conclusion: this group is not on job sites and does not respond to an advertisement. It moves only for a concrete, better offer that comes to them.
Dutch employees understood the shortage long ago. In the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey (NEA), 78.8% of employees said in 2025 that they could easily find a job with another employer. In 2014 it was 53.2%. Workers’ confidence rose by 25 percentage points in ten years and stayed close to its record even after the 2022 peak.
Recruiters usually read that figure as a threat: anyone can leave. This analysis reads it the other way round, as a map of the market that does not apply. The figures are from CBS and TNO; the conclusions are ours.
The confidence is structural
The rise is not a cyclical ripple. The share of employees who say they could easily work elsewhere climbed almost without interruption from 53.2% in 2014 to 70.9% in 2019, peaked at 80.6% in 2022 and stood at 78.8% in 2025. The labour market cooled after 2022; the confidence of people who already have work barely followed.
| Year | Could easily find a job elsewhere |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 53.2% |
| 2017 | 64.5% |
| 2019 | 70.9% |
| 2022 | 80.6% |
| 2025 | 78.8% |
Applied to the more than 8 million employees in the Netherlands, that is over 6 million people who know their own market value. And they are not unhappy: 78.6% are satisfied with their work. Confident and satisfied at once, that is the starting position of the average Dutch employee in 2025.
Under 45, almost everyone knows it
Confidence is highest where employers search hardest. Of employees aged 25 to 35, 86.0% say they could easily go elsewhere, of those aged 35 to 45, 84.8%. Even between 45 and 55 the share is 80.9%. Only above that does it drop: 63.0% at 55 to 65.
| Age | Could easily find a job elsewhere |
|---|---|
| 15 to 25 | 85.4% |
| 25 to 35 | 86.0% |
| 35 to 45 | 84.8% |
| 45 to 55 | 80.9% |
| 55 to 65 | 63.0% |
But almost nobody goes
Against all that confidence stands the actual movement, and it is small. In the second quarter of 2026, 4.0% of employees changed employer, one in 25. Of employees on a permanent contract, 2.2% switched. Those who give up a permanent contract rarely get one straight back: 28,000 of the 123,000 departing permanent employees.
Four in five know they could leave; one in 25 does. That gap is not ignorance and not dissatisfaction. It is a threshold: a move usually costs the permanent contract, and nobody brings these people a reason to pay that price. They do not search, because they do not have to.
What the figures do not show
The NEA is a sample survey of employees aged 15 to 75; the figures here are point estimates, and the margins are in the same table. From reporting year 2022 the survey design changed in places, so figures from 2022 onwards are not always exactly comparable with earlier years. The movement in this analysis, from just over 50% to almost 80%, is far larger than that break.
More importantly, the statement measures perceived ease, not intention. Someone who says they could easily leave does not yet want to. These figures show reachability, not intention to leave, and that is how we use them. The switching figures count employees only; the self-employed fall outside both tables.
Our conclusion
The largest candidate market in the Netherlands does not apply. More than 6 million employees know they could work elsewhere, are satisfied where they are and so have no reason at all to browse job sites. Whoever recruits only among active applicants never sees this group.
These people do not need to be convinced that a move is possible; they already know. They need a reason. That calls for an offer that comes to them and is concrete from the start: which role, what content, what salary, and security from the first day, because the permanent contract is precisely the threshold that confidence does not remove.
- Judge vacancy channels only on the active market; the silent majority cannot be reached through them.
- Approach people directly: under 45, more than 84% say they could easily switch, so the reachable group is large.
- Make the first contact concrete; people who know their value drop out at a vague pitch.
- Remove the threshold confidence does not solve: offer a permanent contract from day one.
Method
Confidence comes from the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey by CBS and TNO, via CBS StatLine table 83054NED: the share of employees who agree with the statement that they can easily find a new job with another employer, annual figures 2014 to 2025, men and women together, point estimates. Retrieved on 1 September 2026 and checked again on 28 September 2026.
The switching figures come from CBS StatLine table 85390NED, second quarter of 2026: 320,000 switchers among 8,032,000 employees (4.0%), 123,000 switchers from a permanent contract among 5,518,000 permanent employees (2.2%), and 28,000 who went straight into a new permanent contract. The conversion to more than 6 million confident employees is ours: 78.8% of 8,032,000. The comparison between being able to and doing is the interpretation of Pearson & Partners, not of CBS or TNO. Both tables are published under CC BY 4.0.