The Dutch labour market in numbers: Q2 2026
375,000 open vacancies, 95 vacancies per 100 unemployed and a vacancy rate of 42. The market is cooling — but it is not loose.
Key takeaways
- —375,000 vacancies were open at the end of Q2 2026 — 3,000 fewer than the previous quarter.
- —There were 95 vacancies per 100 unemployed people (seasonally adjusted): cooler than the 2022 peak, still historically tight.
- —Care, trade and business services hold more than half of all open vacancies.
- —The vacancy rate rose from 41 to 42 per 1,000 jobs, so demand per employer has not collapsed.
By the numbers
- Open vacancies
- 375kOpen vacanciesEnd of Q2 2026, −3k QoQ
- Vacancies per 100 unemployed
- 95Vacancies per 100 unemployedSeasonally adjusted
- Vacancy rate
- 42Vacancy ratePer 1,000 jobs, up from 41
- New vacancies created
- 355kNew vacancies createdIn Q2 2026, −5k QoQ
The headline story of the Dutch labour market in 2026 is not a crash. It is a slow, uneven normalisation. Vacancies keep drifting down, unemployment keeps drifting down too, and the ratio between them stays close to one-to-one.
The numbers
At the end of the second quarter of 2026, 375,000 vacancies were open — 3,000 fewer than a quarter earlier, continuing the downward trend. Unemployment fell by 17,000 in the same quarter and the number of jobs decreased by 8,000. That combination leaves 95 vacancies for every 100 unemployed people. Employers rarely have an easy shortlist at that ratio.
Where the demand sits
Care, trade and business services together account for more than half of all open vacancies. Business services — which includes most of the commercial, marketing and consulting roles our labels hire for — dropped by 1,000 to 61,000 open vacancies. Culture, recreation and other services fell to 10,000. Most other sectors were flat.
Flow, not just stock
355,000 new vacancies were created and 357,000 were filled in the quarter. Slightly more roles closed than opened, which explains the shrinking stock — but almost 1.2 million hiring conversations a year still run through this market. Cooling demand changes leverage; it does not remove the need to be good at hiring.
What it means practically
For employers: the panic premium is gone, but scarce profiles are still scarce, and process quality decides the close more often than budget does. For candidates: the market rewards specificity — generic profiles compete with more applicants than they did in 2022, specialist profiles barely notice the cooling.
“Cooling is not the same as loose. At 95 vacancies per 100 unemployed, nobody is coasting.”
Frequently asked
- Is the Dutch labour market still tight in 2026?
- Yes, but less so. At the end of Q2 2026 there were 95 vacancies per 100 unemployed people, down from the peak tightness of 2022 and slightly below the 101 per 100 measured unadjusted, but still close to historic highs.
- How many vacancies are open in the Netherlands?
- 375,000 at the end of the second quarter of 2026, according to CBS — 3,000 fewer than the previous quarter.
Sources
Figures are as published by the source at the time of writing. Frontrunners commentary and interpretation are our own.