The Netherlands now has one of the tightest labour markets in the European Union, measured as open vacancies against unemployed people. But it did not get there by tightening. The Dutch market loosened after 2022; almost every other tight market loosened faster. That makes the position a relative one, and it carries a practical message: the neighbouring markets that used to compete hardest for the same people have cooled more than ours.
What the comparison says
Set Eurostat's vacancy count against its unemployment count for each member state and at the end of 2025 the Netherlands ranks among the very tightest. Malta, Cyprus and Germany follow at a distance. At the other end, in Romania and Spain, there are many unemployed people for every open post. The spread between member states is far larger than any single country's movement since 2022.
Not a rise, a slower fall
At the European peak in mid-2022 the Netherlands was not at the front. Czechia and Germany were tighter. Since then every one of those markets has cooled, but at very different speeds. The Dutch ratio fell clearly; the German, Austrian and Czech ratios fell much further. In the Netherlands vacancies dropped and unemployment rose, the way a cooling market behaves. What stands out is how little both moved compared with the neighbours.
Growth explains the others, not the Dutch
The usual explanation for the cooling is economic growth: where output stalled, labour demand stalled too. Across the member states that holds up well. Germany and Austria stood still and watched their tightness collapse, while fast growers such as Malta and Cyprus tightened. The Netherlands does not fit. Its economy grew only weakly over the same period, yet its tightness held up better than that of any other country that was very tight in 2022.
Structural features set the Netherlands apart. The vacancy rate sits above its own record from before the pandemic, while most of the other tight markets of 2019 are now below theirs. And no member state has as large a share of its workers in part-time jobs. The same amount of work spread over more contracts produces more vacancies at unchanged demand for hours. Part of the Dutch lead may be a matter of how the country cuts work into jobs, not only of how much work there is.
What this does not show
The ratio sets vacancies against the unemployed, a narrow definition of supply. Part-timers who want more hours fall outside it, and in the Netherlands they outnumber the unemployed; count them and the Dutch market looks far less tight. The CBS, Eurostat and UWV each publish their own vacancy and tightness figures with different definitions, and those cannot be reconciled into one number. Denmark and Italy publish no comparable vacancy count, and the European series runs a few quarters behind the Dutch one. A renewed rise in the Dutch ratio while the neighbours stay flat would turn this reading around.
What you can do
- Do not cite the ranking as proof of rising shortage. The Dutch market has loosened since 2022; its position is relative.
- Look across the border. Germany and Austria, once as tight as the Netherlands or tighter, have cooled harder. Recruiting there means recruiting in a calmer market.
- Count the hours reserve. Extra hours from your own part-timers compete with hiring, and the national ratio says nothing about them.
- Look beneath the national figure. If member states differ this much, so do sectors and occupations at home. Check the tightness of your own field before you plan.