Unemployment is rising slightly but some sectors continue to be strapped for workers, staffing agency Randstad chief executive Jeroen Tiel said at the presentation of the company’s third quarter results on Wednesday.
“The labour market remains tight, particularly in several big sectors,” he told the Telegraaf. The country needs to choose where it wants to employ people, he said, pointing at some 70,000 vacancies in healthcare and 30,000 in construction, a record for both sectors.
At least 50,000 people are needed in engineering and demand for defence staff is growing as well, he said.
Tiel said politicians are concentrating too much on the current labour market, but, he said, more must be done to help people who lose their jobs to step into another. To achieve a more flexible labour market, the rules must be brought up to date and productivity increased, he said.
Randstad labour market expert Bart van Krimpnen said he was not worried about the rise in unemployment, which at 4% in October, is the highest it has been in four years. “That is primarily down to young people who are temporarily out of work. Some 85% are back to work within a year,” he said.
Meanwhile, AI is already having an effect in the financial sector, IT and marketing, he said, but is lagging in the staff-strapped sectors.
Randstad has started training 1000 mechanics, as well as 1000 drivers and operators to fill the gaps. “If others do this too, we may get somewhere. We have to break the deadlock,” he said.
Randstad saw turnover drop 3.4% in the third quarter of the year, the 11th quarterly decline in a row. Net profit fell 22% to €83 million, compared with €106 million in the same period last year.
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