Netherlands records unprecedented rise in unemployment in June

The coronavirus crisis has led to an unprecedented rise in unemployment in the Netherlands over the past month, the country's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) stated on Thursday.

The number of the unemployed in the Netherlands increased by 131,000 over the past three months to a total of 404,000 in June, about 4.3 percent of the labor force. June saw the biggest rise since the start of the monthly CBS measurements in 2003, with 74,000 more unemployed.

According to the CBS, the data reflected the impact of the government's anti-coronavirus measures, which was already visible in the economic figures. April saw an increase of 41,000 unemployed, whereas May witnessed a rise of 16,000.

In November 2008, at the beginning of the financial crisis, the unemployment rate was 3.6 percent in the Netherlands. It took seven months for this to rise to 4.3 percent. This year, however, it took only one month to see the same rise.

Unemployment increased most among people aged 15-25, up from 9.5 percent to 10.7 percent. For those aged 25-45, it rose from 2.9 percent to 3.7 percent; and those aged above 45, the jobless rate grew from 2.2 percent to 2.6 percent.