ABSTRACT
The standard unemployment indicator in the Netherlands has been the rate derived by dividing the registered unemployed by the dependent population. This measure understates unemployment because certain people, willing to work and seeking jobs, are excluded. A significant feature of the Dutch labour market is the low rate of labour force participation. As with the “handicapped” worker phenomenon, sickness absenteeism may be regarded as cushion mitigating unemployment, but there is no evidence that it is cyclical, nor that it would be reversed by an upturn in economic activity. Dutch economic growth slowed down markedly after 1973 to less than half the pace maintained in the golden age of 1960-73. The Dutch economy is more open than most witn a foreign trade ratio equal to about half of gross domestic product, and no exchange controls for residents. A. Maddison even says “Dutch success has been remarkable, in terms of governmental objectives”.
