Why are fewer Dutch workers changing jobs, and how do you still find staff?

On 24 September, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) published new figures from the Dutch Labour Force Survey on employees aged 15 to 75 who left their job. In 2025 there were 618,000 of them per quarter on average. In 2022, when Dutch unemployment was at its lowest level in almost 25 years, there were still 677,000. So fewer people are changing jobs, and the reasons they leave are shifting.

Leaving for another job or to become self-employed is still the most common main reason, but its share is shrinking: from 42 to 38 per cent of everyone who left. At the same time, leaving because of a bankruptcy, a cutback, a reorganisation or a workplace conflict grew from 5 per cent in 2022 to 8 per cent in 2025. Cutbacks, reorganisations and conflicts alone ended some 34,000 contracts per quarter. It happens most often among permanent staff: for 14 per cent of permanent employees who left, a business reason or a conflict was the main cause.

The end of a temporary contract stayed at roughly the same level, around 15 per cent.

Two things at once, and they point in different directions.

The group that applies on its own is getting smaller. People who are content, or unsure, stay where they are. You notice it in your vacancies: fewer responses from people who already have a job, who are often exactly the ones you want to talk to. Posting a vacancy and waiting works less well for experienced profiles. Those people have not gone anywhere, they just are not browsing job boards. How to reach them anyway is covered in reaching passive talent. What often works is meeting them where they already spend time, for example with social recruitment on Facebook and Instagram.

Another group has to look for work. People who lose their job after a reorganisation or bankruptcy are searching because they must, not because they want to. The Dutch figures show how that group fares: of those who left for business reasons in 2025, 32 per cent were unemployed a quarter later and 21 per cent had left the labour force altogether. Together, 53 per cent were not working. In the same group, 36 per cent had found work on a flexible contract and 8 per cent a permanent job.

That last number is the one employers should notice. People who get back into work after a reorganisation far more often do so on a temporary contract than on a permanent one. If you can offer a permanent role, you are offering something most employers are not giving this group at that moment.

Start with the people you already know. Former applicants who narrowly missed out, former employees who left on good terms and candidates from earlier rounds are the quickest way to someone who is not searching. How to build a file of them that you actually use is explained in how to build a talent pool.

Keep your vacancy short and clear about what someone gains by moving. Someone who is not looking weighs a new job against what they already have, not against other vacancies. Pay, travel time, working hours and the security of a permanent contract count for more than a list of company values.

Make applying easy. A form with a few questions, a phone number and a promise that you will call within a few days lowers the bar for someone who was not planning to move. With specialist and office roles in particular, a candidate who was not looking drops out quickly if the process takes weeks.

And make sure your employer story holds up before you start broadcasting it. Recruitment marketing starts with the question of why anyone would want to work for you, and the answer has to convince someone who is giving up a permanent job.

Does this mean the Dutch labour market is less tight?

The figures do not say that. They are about who leaves and why, not about how many vacancies are open. Fewer people left their jobs, so fewer candidates become available on their own. Leaving after a reorganisation is growing, but it is still a small group, 8 per cent of everyone who left. For most roles it remains a search, especially for people who already have work.

Should I target people who have been made redundant?

It can be a good route, especially if you offer a permanent contract. Bear in mind that it is a small group that changes all the time and is spread across sectors. Someone who leaves because of a reorganisation is not automatically the weakest performer. Assess these candidates the same way as anyone else and simply ask why they left.

Why do so many people end up on a flexible contract after redundancy?

Statistics Netherlands does not give a cause. It only measures what people are doing a quarter later: mostly working on a flexible contract, far less often on a permanent one. An obvious explanation is that temporary work is quicker to find than a permanent job. An employer who does offer a permanent contract stands out clearly.

What changes when fewer people switch jobs?

Your vacancies bring in less on their own. Applicants who already have a job respond less often, so your reach needs to be wider and better targeted, and your process faster. Your own staff also tend to stay longer. That is good news for retention, but it also means fewer roles open up internally for new people to grow into.

SocialFind wrote this article based on the Statistics Netherlands release of 24 September 2026 on reasons for leaving a job from 2022 to 2025, checked on 30 September 2026. To get articles like this by email, sign up for our newsletter.