NOORD-BRABANT - Employment
Dramatic growth and fall in employment
The economic recovery during the period 1994-2001 in Noord-Brabant is reflected best in the dramatic growth in employment over these years. This growth is well above the Dutch average.
A relatively large part, around 20%, of employment is found in the industrial sector. Several multinationals and foreign firms provide many industrial jobs (among them Philips, Packar, Fuji, Amgen).
65 % of the working population is employed in the services sector. In transport and in distributive trades particularly, many jobs have been created in the past years.
The number of people in employment in the primary sector has fallen over the past few years due to more stringent environmental regulations on intensive animal production and reconstruction of the primary sector. In the next years the rural areas of Noord-Brabant will be redeveloped. The primary production will be concentrated in a few spots, villages will be small and large industry-locations placed in the larger cities.
The turn of the tide
With the disappearance of the traditional sectors of industry, such as textiles, leatherwork and tobacco in the 1960s and the 1970s, there was a high level of persistent long-term unemployment in North Brabant. The revitalising of the economy, which was vigorously pursued in the middle of the 1980s, was reflected in a large fall in unemployment. After the economic boom in the last years of the 20th century, the economic decline in 2001/2002 has had dramatic effects on employment and economic growth in Noord-Brabant. At this moment the unemployment is rising at a high rate. Workers become unemployed, scholars face unemployment.
Of the people seeking work a growing part belong to the category long-term unemployed, and are mainly women and members of ethnic minorities. The generally upmarket nature of the Noord Brabant economy disadvantages this group. It is precisely these people who often lack the required qualifications for being absorbed quickly into the economy. Efforts are being made, by means of retraining, additional training courses and individual approaches, to help them find a job.
Labour costs and incomes
As a result of the Dutch system of collective labour agreements (CAOs), there are, on the whole, only minor regional differences in wage levels. For each branch of economic activity, a collective labour agreement is concluded at national level and all employers in the sector concerned are bound by it.
In the second part of the 1990s there was a rise in nominal wage costs, particularly in the key sectors of industry and services, mostly due to shortages on the labour market, especially for qualified personnel. Although this process occurred in every part of the Netherlands, the Eindhoven region suffered most. Many employees from other countries were hired.
Given the minor regional differences in wage levels in the Netherlands, the distribution of value-added among the various income categories (wages, social security charges, indirect taxation, other income) largely reflects differences in the production structure of the provinces.
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