The number of unemployment benefits is falling. In January, some 154,000 people nationwide received unemployment benefits. That is twenty percent less than a year earlier, the UWV reports.
In Central Utrecht, almost 7,000 people received unemployment benefits. Despite the fall over the whole year, this is 176 more (2.6 percent) than in December. According to the UWV, the number of unemployed is always slightly higher in the winter because there are sectors, such as construction, where there is most work in the summer. Schuil: “This is a small increase. You often see that this group of people is in a different profession than the one in which demand is highest. This could, for example, require retraining.”