The number of people receiving unemployment benefits in the northern provinces declined significantly in the month of May.
By Matthijs van Houten / Translation by Traci White
Drenthe saw the biggest decrease nationwide: unemployment was down by 8.2 percent in the province. The Employment Insurance Agency UWV reported that fewer people were receiving benefits in Groningen and Friesland as well.
Drenthe
In Drenthe, there were 9,822 unemployment benefits recipients (3.9 percent of the total provincial population) in May, which was 881 fewer than in April. In May 2018, the number of unemployment benefits was down by 25.9 percent in comparison to May 2017.
According to UWV, the agency that provides unemployment benefits, the dramatic change from one month to the next is due to the summer season: agriculture, catering, construction and temp agencies all have more vacancies during this time of the year.
Friesland
In Friesland, around 1,000 people went off benefits from April to May, which is around 7 percent. There were 12,326 people in the province on unemployment benefits as of the end of May, which is 25.7 percent fewer people than the same period in 2017.
Groningen
The decline in Groningen was somewhat smaller: 723 fewer people were receiving benefits from one month to the next, which is a decline of 6.4 percent. In the province, 10,614 people were on benefits as of 31 May (3.5 percent of the total population of Groningen). But the difference compared to last year is actually the largest in Groningen: 26.4 percent fewer people were receiving benefits in May 2018 than May 2017.
The numbers declined by four percent across the entire country between April and May. At the end of the month of May, 3.3 percent of the total Dutch population was receiving unemployment benefits, which is 300,940 people.
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