Keywords:
labor market, employment, work, jobs
Title: Dutch hold on to their pennies - economy nosedives
Price: £25 - 35
Dutch hold on to their pennies - economy nosedives
Dutch trade unions, employers and government officials clinched a deal to keep unemployed benefits unchanged, but which makes employers and employees pay a third of the costs. The unemployed in the Netherlands will remain entitled to three years of unemployment benefits, two of which for are paid for by the government. The third year will be coughed up by employees and employers themselves.
“At the moment, people who have worked for at least 26 of the previous 38 weeks are entitled to three months of unemployment benefit. That rises to a maximum 38 months for people who have worked for 38 weeks. The payout is 70% of last earned salary”, explained DutchNews after the announcement was made.
The deal was reached shortly after a recent economic forecast by the Centraal Plan Bureau (CBP) revealed that only the Greek economy is in a worse state than the Dutch economy. The spendthrift Dutch are experiencing a decline in Gross Domestic Product that is forecast to see an upturn in 2014, but merely because of an anticipated improvement in the world economy, the new figures indicate.
In the government’s recently announced Central Economic Plan for 2013, provisions were made to achieve a budget deficit of 3.3 per cent for this year. In 2014, the deficit will rise tot 3,4 per cent, according to the CBP.
The government in the Hague responded to the economic forecast by announcing extra spending cuts of 4.4 billion euro next year, in order to bring the budget deficit within the Brussels stipulated 3 percent bandwidth.
Although the economy in the Netherlands is foreseen to grow with 1 per cent in 2014, the domestic market is in an impasse for the foreseeable future. Consumer confidence is at a very low level because of a housing market that can be termed diabolical. Says CPB chairman Coen Teulings, ‘the one spiral causes the other, down spiral.’
The growth in unemployment is a continuous worry. This year unemployment is set to rise with 90.000 people to 560.000. Next year the number is expected to rise to 575.000.
Teulings does add that given these circumstances unemployment figures could have been a lot worse. In the past, says Teulings, the effect of spending cuts on the domestic economy has been underestimated.
