During the first wave of the pandemic, workers with non-standard labour contracts were hit particularly hard, whereas those with open-ended contracts have fared relatively well all along (Figure 1 right). In the second quarter of 2021, unemployment among those with a low level of educational attainment was also 1.0%-points higher than it was in the first quarter of 2020. However, unemployment among those 15 to 25 years of age is still 1.0%-points higher now than it was in February 2020. Unemployment among those with a non-western migration background now is lower than it was when the COVID-19 crisis started. For most of these groups, labour market conditions have improved considerably by now. Workers that became unemployed during the COVID-19 crisis so far were typically young, had a low or intermediate level of educational attainment, had a non-western migration background and/or were working on a non-standard type of labour contract. It remained below its pre-crisis level until July 2021. Last year already participation veered back quickly, but not fully, after the steep decline that occurred between February and May (from 71.4% to 70,2%).
NETHERLANDS LOCKDOWN STATUS SERIES
Gross labour participation stood at 71.6% of the population in July 2021, a record high since 2003, the first year of the time series that is currently available. Since then it has come down steadily to 3.1% in July 2021, increasing just slightly to 3.2% in August 2021, only 0.3%-point above the historic low of 2.9% recorded in February 2020. In August 2020 the unemployment rate peaked at 4.6% of the labour force. In the period March-August 2020 the number of unemployed persons increased by over 150 thousand persons. The number of persons employed now slightly exceeds the number reached in February 2020, just before the onset of the pandemic in the Netherlands. During the months June 2020 through July 2021 employment increased by 17 thousand persons per month on average, bringing the level to over 9 million persons in July. After May 2020 monthly declines in employment occurred only in September 2020 and March 2021. When restrictive measures were lifted step by step, a gradual recovery set in that, somewhat surprisingly, continued more or less uninterruptedly during the second wave of the pandemic.
During the months March through May 2020, the number of persons employed declined by over 200 thousand persons. Employment has recovered from the large drop that occurred last year (Figure 1 left).
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