Insights
Articles and labour market research data.
The shortage sits in the workshop
Ask Dutch employers which vacancy is hardest to fill and a technical role tops the list, across several sectors at…
The Dutch workforce is thin on technical degrees
The technical shortage is not only about how many students graduate each year. The whole educated base is thin, and…
The sectors where demand ignores the cycle
Construction, grid work and healthcare hire on programmes, not on the economy. With a labour force that barely grows, their…
How you ask for a salary decides what you get
Research on new hires shows which ways of negotiating pay off. The comfortable middle is not one of them.
Employers now rank hiring quality above speed
Employers worry more about hiring the right person than about hiring fast. Most still run one screening process for every…
Labour is the constraint that rises again
Business surveys show the shortage returning before vacancy figures do. Industry and construction feel it first.
The whole rich world is short of staff
Employers who expect relief from abroad count on a surplus that hardly exists. The OECD shows the rich world tight…
A higher offer rarely fills the vacancy
Labour got much more expensive, yet salary is rarely what keeps a vacancy open. Too few applicants and missing skills…
Scarce labour now decides which work gets done
When the labour force stops growing, demand adapts to supply. Firms take on less work. The people exist, but they…
Among the tightest because others cooled faster
The Dutch market cooled too. It ranks among the tightest in the EU because Germany, Austria and Czechia cooled much…
Most shortage measures only move people around
European case studies show what employers do against shortages. Most measures redistribute scarce people. Few create new supply.
The shortage stayed where work cannot wait
The cooling labour market is real on average and misleading by sector. Construction and healthcare are about as tight as…
The youth reserve is already empty
Few young Dutch people are outside both work and education, fewer than anywhere else in the EU. Most of them…
Higher pay does not make IT staff happier
IT staff already earn well and decide how they work. Their job satisfaction is still average. A higher offer rarely…
A cooler IT market is not an easier one
The Dutch IT labour market has cooled since 2023. Hiring has not become easy: the problem moved from finding enough…
Why more IT graduates did not end the shortage
Education delivered far more ICT graduates than in 2015 and the IT shortage barely moved. The missing ingredient is experience,…
Where applicants drop out
Career sites now attract candidates well. What happens after the application is where employers lose them, and the gap is…
Regulators have outgrown the rest of the state
Supervision grew faster than the state since 2010 because every new law brought new duties. Growth has stalled for now,…
The hiring ladder costs time on scarce roles
Employers who struggle to hire move up a ladder from cheap to costly measures. The order is sensible for common…
Hiring teams plan more than they assess
The largest block of a recruiter's week goes to calendars, reminders and rescheduling. Assessment, the work that decides a hire,…
A cloud exit is a staffing question first
Whether a company can leave its cloud provider depends less on contracts and alternatives than on whether it has the…
Pay rises slow, the package counts more
The catch-up in Dutch agreed wages is over. With the inflation argument gone, employers stand out on hours, security and…
The back office shrinks from the bottom
Data entry and secretarial work keep shrinking, the specialist layer above it keeps growing. An ageing workforce means the roles…
Changing roles as a senior: consultant or direct
Senior professionals who change jobs can apply directly or work with a consultant. A consultant adds information and a stronger…