Global Legal Insights 2018, the Netherlands, Employment & Labor Law (authors Nils Zeeuwen, Ivo Boudrie and Maarten Stekelenburg)

Labor market developments

Following the entry into force in July 2015 of the Work and Security Act, Dutch employment law has fundamentally changed. The Act aimed to simplify dismissal law and to reduce the disparity between permanent and fl ex workers. General elections in 2017 resulted in a coalition agreement, again meaning changes in employment law. Thanks to stable economic growth, the number of jobs will increase over the next two years to around 10.2 million in 2018. In a number of sectors, such as care and construction, the labor market is tightening. In the ICT sector there is already a shortage. Unemployment has fallen to 4.7% of the labor force in September 2017, according to Statistics Netherlands. The proportion of employees with a fl exible contract has risen sharply in recent years. In the fi rst quarter of 2017, the number of flex workers increased even more than the number of permanent jobs.