The growth of the Dutch temporary employment market has come to a standstill for the market leader Randstad. For the first time in a year and a half, the company’s turnover in the Netherlands has not grown.

For a year and a half it was exceptionally well attended for job placements. At the beginning of the Corona crisis, companies had said goodbye to temporary workers en masse, but soon they needed more people. Due to the tight labor market, companies commissioned temporary work agencies on higher terms in order to find new staff.

According to Randstad, that growth ended in the third quarter of this year. There is growth worldwide. Sales increased by 12 percent to over 7 billion euros.

In almost every region where Randstad is active, such as the United States, Japan and Australia, the employment agency’s services have seen increased demand. Growth came to a standstill only in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Anecdotal

According to Dominique Hermans, Managing Director of Randstad Netherlands, this is mainly because the past year has gone very well in the Netherlands. The company then placed many temporary workers on corona test streets, some of which are now closed.

But she also sees some companies taking action because of high energy costs and uncertainty. “There are companies here and there that say they need fewer people, but you can’t tie that to an industry yet. That’s very anecdotal.”

Since the beginning of this month, Randstad has observed a certain reluctance to hire new employees from companies worldwide.

aging

Unemployment in the Netherlands rose to 3.8 percent of the labor force this year. In six months more than 60,000 unemployed were added. It was announced last week that companies are filing further layoffs and that the decline in unemployment benefits has ended.

At the same time, the labor market is still very tight. Randstad Netherlands’ Dominique Hermans doesn’t think that’s going to change any time soon. “If you look at the aging numbers, I suspect that there is still a long way to go in our industry.”