Dutch Hiring Market Report, Q3 2026

Every quarter we turn the latest figures from CBS (Statistics Netherlands) into one report on the Dutch hiring market: where the vacancies are, how tight each province is, and what each occupation pays. This edition covers Q3 2026, from the figures CBS published on 30 October 2026.

The short version: the market cooled a little, but it is still tight. At the end of September there were 376,000 open vacancies, over 8,000 fewer than a year earlier, while the number of unemployed people rose from 404,000 to 415,000. That left 91 open vacancies for every 100 unemployed people, down from 95.

That sounds like a market with more people than jobs, but the unemployed and the open vacancies rarely match one for one. And the national figure hides big differences by sector, by province and by occupation.

Key findings

• In Q3 2026 there were 91 open vacancies for every 100 unemployed people in the Netherlands, against 95 a year earlier.
• Employers had 376,000 open vacancies at the end of the quarter, 2.2% fewer than in Q3 2025.
• Construction had the most open vacancies for its size: 72 per 1,000 jobs, against 41 across all sectors.
• The sharpest rise was in healthcare and welfare: 4.8% more open vacancies than a year earlier, 70,000 in all.
• The sharpest fall was in financial services: 20.5% fewer open vacancies than a year earlier, 6,600 in all.
• Overijssel had the tightest labour market, with 114 open vacancies per 100 unemployed; Flevoland the least tight, with 68.
• Of the 48 occupations on our hiring market pages with wages for both years, primary school teachers saw the biggest rise in median hourly wage in 2025: +13.9%, to €37.60. For the middle occupation the rise was +5.6%.

Vacancies by sector

Open vacancies at the end of Q3 2026 and the vacancy rate (open vacancies per 1,000 jobs), highest rate first. Changes compare with Q3 2025.

Construction is still where vacancies are hardest to fill: 72 open vacancies per 1,000 jobs, the highest of any sector, though down from 79 a year earlier. Healthcare and welfare grew the most, to 69,700 open vacancies, 3,200 more than a year earlier. Together with wholesale and retail it holds more than a third of all open vacancies in the country. The biggest fall was in professional, scientific and technical services, such as consultancies, engineering firms and law firms: 33,400 open vacancies, 3,900 fewer, with the rate down from 55 to 48. Financial services, real estate, and culture, sports and recreation each fell from 37 to 29 per 1,000 jobs.

A high rate means many jobs in a sector are open at once, which usually means longer searches and more competition for the same people. In construction and healthcare a vacancy that stays open for months is normal, and it pays to look beyond people who are actively applying.

Tightness by province

Open vacancies per 100 unemployed people in Q3 2026, tightest first, with the figure for Q3 2025 and the unemployment rate.

Tightness differs far more between provinces than the national figure suggests. Overijssel had 114 open vacancies per 100 unemployed, the tightest market in the country and up from 100 a year earlier: its vacancies held steady while the number of unemployed fell from 25,000 to 22,000. Zeeland (111), Noord-Brabant (107), Drenthe (103) and Utrecht (101) also had more open vacancies than unemployed people. At the other end were Flevoland, with 68, and Groningen, with 72.

The market loosened most in Noord-Holland, where tightness fell from 97 to 84 as unemployment rose from 73,000 to 82,000, in Utrecht (113 to 101) and in Gelderland (102 to 93). CBS counts unemployed people per province in thousands, so in the smaller provinces a thousand more or fewer moves the figure by several points.

Every province, and the four big cities, has a page per occupation in our hiring market pages.

Wages by occupation

Median gross hourly wage in 2025 and the change on 2024, for the 50 occupations with a hiring market page, fastest rise first.

CBS publishes wages per occupation once a year, so this table shows 2025, the latest year out. For the middle occupation, the median hourly wage rose 5.5% on 2024. Primary school teachers saw the biggest rise, 13.9% to €37.60 an hour, followed by financial specialists and economists (9.7%), car mechanics (9.5%) and electricians (9.1%). The median wage fell in three occupations: lawyers (−0.5%), warehouse workers and shelf stackers (−1.7%) and security staff (−2.0%).

A median can move because pay changed, or because different people now work in the occupation, so read one year's change as a signal rather than a raise everyone got. Each occupation links to its page, with the wage range, the workforce and how tight the market is in every region.

What this means if you hire

• Fewer vacancies doesn't mean easier hiring everywhere. Construction and healthcare are still tight, and in Overijssel, Zeeland, Noord-Brabant, Drenthe and Utrecht there are more open vacancies than unemployed people.
• Where the market loosened, use it. Professional and financial services have fewer open vacancies than a year ago, and Noord-Holland has fewer per unemployed person, so this is a good time to fill roles that were hard to fill last year.
• Check pay before you post. With the middle occupation up 5.5% in a year, a salary range set last year may now sit below the market.

Download the full report

The PDF has every table in this article, with the method and sources on one page. Quote and chart the figures freely, citing SourceGeek and CBS.

How we made this report

All figures come from CBS (Statistics Netherlands) StatLine, published under CC BY 4.0. Counts are rounded as CBS publishes them, in thousands. Changes compare with the same quarter a year earlier, because vacancies move with the seasons. Tightness is open vacancies per 100 unemployed people; the vacancy rate is open vacancies per 1,000 jobs. CBS publishes wages per occupation yearly, so the wage table shows the latest year. Figures CBS does not publish are left out. The figures behind this report are frozen when it is published; our hiring market pages follow CBS every week.