The Dutch labour market remains tight, but pressure is gradually easing. At the end of the first quarter of 2026, there were 378,000 open vacancies according to Statistics Netherlands. That was 6,000 fewer than one quarter earlier. At the same time, technical, healthcare and ICT professionals remain difficult to find, while AI is rapidly changing the skills employers need.
The labour market at a glance
| Indicator | Latest officially available figure |
|---|---|
| Open vacancies, end of Q1 2026 | 378,000 |
| Change compared with Q4 2025 | 6,000 fewer |
| Vacancies per 100 unemployed people, Q1 2026 | 91 |
| Unemployment, April 2026 | 3.9% |
| Number of unemployed people, April 2026 | 397,000 |
| Employers affected by labour market shortages in 2025 | 58% |
| Vacancies considered difficult to fill by employers | 45% |
| Dutch employers expecting to expand in Q2 | 37% |
The official Statistics Netherlands quarterly figures for total vacancy volume in Q2 2026 were not yet available when this report was prepared. For national vacancy volume, we therefore use the latest published quarterly figure: 378,000 open vacancies at the end of Q1 2026.
This was 6,000 fewer than one quarter earlier. There were 91 vacancies for every 100 unemployed people. Pressure is therefore clearly lower than at the 2022 peak, but the labour market remains tight.
In April 2026, unemployment fell to 3.9%, equivalent to 397,000 people. This monthly figure should not be directly combined with the quarterly vacancy figure to calculate a new official tightness ratio. We therefore do not describe the Q2 ratio as being below 90.
From extreme to selective tightness
The labour market is not easing at the same pace everywhere. The gap between general and specialist roles is widening.
UWV reports that 58% of employers were still affected by labour market shortages in 2025. On average, employers considered 45% of their vacancies difficult to fill. Technical roles and occupations in healthcare and social care created the greatest recruitment difficulties.
This means the market is operating at two speeds:
- standard roles are becoming easier to fill in some sectors;
- specialist technical, healthcare and ICT professionals remain scarce;
- employers are looking more critically at job requirements and productivity;
- training and career-switch pathways are becoming more important;
- automation is increasingly becoming part of workforce strategy.
The term selective tightness is therefore more accurate than suggesting that labour shortages have ended.
What does this mean for employers?
Recruitment pressure is easing on average, but that does not mean every vacancy is easy to fill.
According to UWV, 87% of employers facing recruitment difficulties cite a lack of applicants as a cause. Employers also mention insufficient skills, professional knowledge and work experience.
Five actions are particularly important for employers:
- Separate strict job requirements from skills that can be developed.
- Publish a clear salary indication and working arrangements.
- Invest in training when candidates do not fully match the profile.
- Identify which routine tasks can be automated.
- Shorten the selection process for demonstrably scarce profiles.
Majoop perspective
Complete vacancy information helps candidates assess more quickly whether a role is suitable. This includes salary, work model, location, required experience, education and required office days. It reduces irrelevant applications and supports faster matching.
What does this mean for recruiters?
The market is polarising. A general talent pool is less valuable when the most difficult vacancies are highly specialised.
Recruiters can differentiate themselves through:
- specialisation in an occupational group or sector;
- current knowledge of salaries and employment conditions;
- access to career-switch candidates;
- European sourcing where responsible and practically feasible;
- helping employers define realistic job requirements;
- knowledge of skills changing due to AI and automation.
UWV reports that for 70% of Dutch shortage occupations, at least one other European country has a labour surplus. This does not mean international recruitment is always simple or desirable, but targeted European labour mobility can form part of the solution.
What does this mean for jobseekers?
The labour market continues to offer opportunities, but required skills are changing.
Employers are not only looking for technical expertise. Adaptability, critical thinking, collaboration, communication and digital skills are becoming more important.
Almost half of employers expect AI to change training needs. In addition, 45% expect different skills to be required. This does not automatically mean entire occupations will disappear. More often, job content changes and certain tasks are automated or supported.
For jobseekers, three choices are therefore important:
- Learn to work with relevant AI and automation tools.
- Invest in professional knowledge that is difficult to standardise.
- Develop human skills such as judgement, communication and collaboration.
Dutch employers remain relatively positive
According to the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, 37% of Dutch employers expected to increase staffing levels in Q2 2026.
The Netherlands ranked:
- six percentage points above the global average;
- tenth worldwide;
- second in Europe, behind Sweden.
These figures reflect employer expectations, not realised job growth. They do, however, show that easing pressure is not the same as a broad decline in demand for staff.
ICT: growth, scarcity and more critical AI use
The Experis Tech Talent Outlook for Q2 2026 surveyed 50 employers in Dutch technology and IT services.
It found that:
- 71% use AI to find, onboard and train talent more quickly;
- only 10% believe AI already performs as expected;
- the majority expected to expand or maintain their workforce.
These findings apply specifically to the technology and IT employers surveyed. They should not be presented as percentages applying to all Dutch employers.
The main lesson is that AI is being adopted quickly in recruitment, but implementation quality, data quality and human oversight are still lagging.
AI mainly changes tasks and skills
A representative UWV study among approximately 3,550 Dutch employers shows that AI use is increasing rapidly, but varies considerably by sector and company size.
The clearest supported findings are:
| AI development | Share of employers |
|---|---|
| Expect changing training needs | 49% |
| Expect different skills to be required | 45% |
| Expect jobs to disappear | 10% |
| AI users providing employee guidance | approximately 60% |
Sectors with relatively intensive AI use include information and communication, professional business services and financial services.
AI mainly affects predictable and routine tasks. This may have consequences for:
- administrative processing;
- data entry;
- simple customer queries;
- standard reporting;
- basic content creation;
- repetitive control activities.
At the same time, AI supports existing professionals, including developers, recruiters, marketers, analysts and managers.
Important nuance
The available sources do not show that 66% or 72% of all Dutch employers use AI. Such general percentages are therefore not included in this report.
Robotisation is becoming more important for manufacturing
In April 2026, TNO warned that the Dutch manufacturing industry must accelerate robotisation to remain internationally competitive.
According to TNO, the Netherlands ranks twelfth worldwide with 264 robots per 10,000 employees.
Robotisation is not only relevant as a substitute for labour. It can also:
- reduce physical strain;
- partly offset staff shortages;
- increase productivity;
- make smaller production runs profitable;
- support existing technical staff.
For employers, this means workforce policy and investment policy are becoming more closely connected. For employees, knowledge of automation, maintenance, programming and human-machine collaboration is becoming more important.
The self-employed market continues to shrink
In Q1 2026, the number of self-employed people without employees fell for the fifth consecutive quarter. According to Statistics Netherlands, there were 116,000 fewer self-employed people than in the fourth quarter of 2024.
It would be too simplistic to attribute this decline entirely to enforcement of the Dutch DBA Act. Economic conditions, sector shifts and choices made by workers and clients may also play a role.
It is clear, however, that employers, intermediaries and self-employed professionals are reassessing:
- permanent employment;
- secondment;
- temporary employment contracts;
- correct classification of working relationships.
Wages and the minimum wage
The statutory minimum hourly wage for employees aged 21 and over was:
| Period | Minimum hourly wage |
|---|---|
| From 1 January 2026 | €14.71 |
| From 1 July 2026 | €14.99 |
Net effects differ per person and depend on factors including hours worked, taxes, tax credits and benefits. We therefore do not state a general net monthly amount.
For collective agreement wages and sector-specific wage agreements, this version does not use unverified detailed percentages. These should only be published when each agreement is linked directly to the relevant collective agreement source or AWVN publication.
Majoop data: separate from official market data
Majoop has its own vacancy data. This provides different insights from Statistics Netherlands or UWV figures.
Statistics Netherlands measures the national labour market using official statistical definitions. Majoop measures vacancies recorded through its platform and data processing. These datasets should therefore not be compared without explanation.
According to the internal Majoop data supplied for this report:
| Majoop indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Active vacancies in the database | more than 216,000 |
| New vacancies in 30 days | 154,512 |
| New vacancies in 7 days | 44,101 |
| Average measured duration | 14 days |
| Median measured duration | 9 days |
Before publication, these figures should be confirmed internally with:
- a fixed reference date;
- the exact definition of ‘active’;
- the definition of duration;
- the country and language scope;
- duplicate exclusions;
- the query or report used.
Without this methodological explanation, these are platform indicators rather than official national statistics.
Outlook for the rest of 2026
The available evidence supports three cautious expectations.
1. The labour market will remain tight, but less broadly
The decline in the tightness ratio from 142 in Q2 2022 to 91 in Q1 2026 shows clear normalisation. Specialist shortages will nevertheless continue.
2. Training and automation will become more important
Employers are not responding only through higher wages or additional recruitment. Training, process improvement, AI and robotisation are becoming structural parts of workforce policy.
3. International sourcing can be used more selectively
European differences between shortage and surplus occupations create opportunities. This requires careful selection, good employment conditions, housing where relevant and realistic expectations.
We do not publish an exact forecast for the Q3 tightness ratio, nor a prediction that more than 50% of vacancies will mention an AI skill. There is currently insufficient verifiable evidence for either claim.
Conclusion
The Dutch labour market is moving from extreme to selective tightness.
National vacancy volume is declining gradually, but employers still face considerable difficulties in technical, healthcare and other specialist roles. At the same time, AI, automation and robotisation are changing the way organisations structure work.
The main conclusions for Q2 2026 are:
- Pressure is easing, but the labour market remains tight.
- Not every sector and role is developing in the same way.
- Specialist skills remain scarce.
- AI mainly changes tasks, training needs and job content.
- Employers must combine recruitment with training and productivity improvement.
- Recruiters must specialise further.
- Jobseekers benefit from combining professional knowledge, digital skills and human capabilities.
Methodology
This report combines:
- official Dutch labour market statistics;
- employer surveys;
- sector research on ICT and manufacturing;
- internal Majoop platform data.
Official market data and Majoop data are deliberately presented separately. Where a figure is an expectation, survey result or internal platform indicator, this is stated explicitly.
Sources
- Statistics Netherlands – Fewer vacancies in the first quarter of 2026
- Statistics Netherlands – Unemployment in April 2026
- UWV – Employers train new staff more often due to labour market shortages
- UWV – Strong increase in AI use in the workplace
- UWV – AI use continues to rise, guidance is lagging
- UWV – European labour surpluses for Dutch shortage occupations
- ManpowerGroup – Employment Outlook Survey Q2 2026
- Experis – Tech Talent Outlook Q2 2026
- TNO – Robotisation of Dutch manufacturing
- Government of the Netherlands – Minimum wage indexation from 1 July 2026
Which Q2 development do you recognise most strongly in your sector?
Share your experience with scarcity, training, AI, automation or changing skill requirements below.