The Netherlands counted more than 1.2 million job switches in 2025, and in the second quarter of 2026, 320,000 of 8,032,000 employees changed employer, 4.0%. That mobility is not an open market but a circuit: six in ten switchers come from the flexible layer of 2.5 million jobs, and 85% land in it again after the move. The permanent core of 5.5 million employees barely takes part, 2.2% per quarter, because switching almost always costs the permanent contract: only 28,000 of the 123,000 departing permanent employees went straight into a new permanent contract. Our conclusion: whoever waits for applications recruits in the flexible layer. The permanent core does not apply. It has to be approached, with security from day one.
Employers who post a vacancy fish in a market of more than 1.2 million job switches a year. That sounds like plenty. It is not: most of that movement takes place in a part of the labour market where the experienced people they are looking for do not sit.
This analysis reads the CBS switching figures through the eyes of a hiring employer: how much moves, who moves, and what that means for anyone looking for permanent staff. The source is CBS StatLine table 85390NED, quarterly figures from early 2013 to the second quarter of 2026. The figures are from CBS; the conclusions are ours.
More than 1.2 million switches a year
In the second quarter of 2026, 320,000 of 8,032,000 employees changed employer. That is 4.0%, one in 25. Over the whole of 2025, CBS counted 1,266,000 switches. That annual total counts switches, not people: someone who moves twice counts twice.
The range since 2013 is narrow. The share never fell below the 2.6% of the second quarter of 2013, when 181,000 employees switched, and never rose above the 5.3% of the third quarter of 2021. The highest number came a year later: 404,000 switches in the third quarter of 2022. That peak of the tight years has fully subsided; at 4.0%, the second quarter of 2026 is almost level with the 3.9% of 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.
| Second quarter | Share of employees who switched |
|---|---|
| 2013 | 2.6% |
| 2016 | 3.3% |
| 2019 | 3.9% |
| 2022 | 4.7% |
| 2025 | 3.8% |
| 2026 | 4.0% |
The seasonal pattern is stable. In eleven of the thirteen measured years, the top quarter fell in the second half of the year, usually the third quarter, after the summer. Only 2020 and 2023 peaked in the first quarter.
The circuit runs in the flexible layer
Employees on a flexible contract switch more than three times as often as permanent staff. In the second quarter of 2026, 197,000 of the 2,514,000 flexible workers changed employer, 7.8%. Of the 5,518,000 employees on a permanent contract, 123,000 switched, 2.2%.
Flexible contracts make up 31% of all employee jobs but supply more than six in ten switchers. After the move, 273,000 of the 320,000 switchers again hold a flexible contract, 85%. The movement comes largely from the flexible layer and returns to it almost entirely. What looks like a fluid labour market from a distance is, up close, a closed circuit of 2.5 million jobs, around a core of 5.5 million that hardly takes part.
| Contract before the switch | Switchers | Share of group |
|---|---|---|
| Flexible contract | 197,000 | 7.8% |
| Permanent contract | 123,000 | 2.2% |
Switching costs the permanent contract
Why the core stands still is in the same table. Of the 123,000 employees who left a permanent contract, 28,000 moved straight into a new permanent contract; 95,000 started on a flexible one. Per quarter, half a percent of the permanent core moves to another employer while keeping its security.
In practice, switching almost always means handing in your permanent contract first. People who have security do not give it up for an on-call or one-year contract, so the core stays put. Employers keep that lock in place themselves: 85% of switchers start flexible at the new employer, including those who arrived from a permanent job. The shortage of permanent staff they experience is partly a shortage they organise themselves.
Who switches
Age matters more than anything else. Of employees aged 15 to 25, 8.5% changed employer in the second quarter of 2026. Between 25 and 45 it is 4.3%, above 45 only 1.6%. Women switch slightly more often than men: 4.3% against 3.7%.
| Age | Share who switched |
|---|---|
| 15 to 25 | 8.5% |
| 25 to 45 | 4.3% |
| 45 to 75 | 1.6% |
What the figures do not show
The table counts employees only. The self-employed fall outside it, so no statement about all workers can be built on these figures. Someone who moves from employment to their own business, or the other way round, does not count as a switcher.
The figures come from the Labour Force Survey, a sample survey that was redesigned in 2021. CBS therefore publishes no value for the first quarter of 2021, and detailed breakdowns do not compare cleanly across that break. A switch is also derived: anyone who worked for a different employer three months earlier counts as a switcher. Inflow from study, unemployment or self-employment does not count. Permanent here means an open-ended contract with fixed hours; flexible is everything else, from agency work and on-call contracts to fixed-term contracts.
Finally, the table does not record through which channel a switcher found the new job. That the vacancy does not reach the permanent core is therefore our reading of the flows, not a CBS measurement. The figures do bound that reading: if the core really moved through the open market while keeping its security, the flow from permanent to permanent would be larger than 28,000 per quarter.
Our conclusion
The Dutch labour market is mobile and closed at the same time. More than 1.2 million people switch every year, but that movement circulates in the flexible layer. The permanent core, where the experience sits that employers say they cannot find, moves 2.2% per quarter and rarely keeps its security when it does.
For employers this means: whoever waits for applications recruits in the flexible layer. The vacancy is the right instrument for flexible, young and starting workers, because that is where 7.8% switch per quarter, and 8.5% under 25. For the permanent core, the vacancy is the wrong instrument. That core does not apply. It has to be approached.
And whoever approaches has one cheap differentiator: security. Only 47,000 of 320,000 switchers per quarter land in a permanent contract, while 85% start flexible. An offer with a permanent contract from the first day removes exactly the threshold that keeps the core in place.
- In an average workforce, expect around 4% to leave for another employer each quarter; replacement is a continuous task, not an incident.
- Looking for flexible or young workers? The open vacancy market works.
- Looking for experienced permanent staff? Approach them directly and offer a permanent contract from day one.
- Plan active recruitment in the second half of the year; in most years that is where the top quarter falls.
Method
All figures come from CBS StatLine table 85390NED, Werknemer; wisseling van werkgever. The series runs from the first quarter of 2013 to the second quarter of 2026 and was retrieved on 31 August 2026; the headline figures were checked again against the table on 28 September 2026. The next quarter is published in October 2026.
The shares in this analysis are calculated from the published counts, which CBS rounds to thousands. Switchers are the sum of two categories: a switch to a permanent employment relationship and a switch to a flexible one. That total is divided by the number of employees in the same quarter. Comparisons are always between like quarters. The interpretation of the flows is that of Pearson & Partners, not of CBS. The table is published under the CBS licence CC BY 4.0.