Rise in unemployment hits lowly educated Dutch harder

The rise in unemployment between 2008 and 2012 has hit the lowly educated Dutch much harder than those with college or university degrees, the Dutch central bureau for statistics (CBS) stated on Monday. In 2012, 8.8 percent of people with no or little further education were without work, up from 5.3 percent in 2008. But just 4.1 percent of people with a university degree were unemployed last year, up from 2.4 percent in the year when the crisis started. Lowly educated people with technical skills in construction work or car industry were most likely to be unemployed, CBS said. Within this group, unemployment increased sharply from 2.2 percent in 2008 to 7.2 percent in 2012. Up from 2.2 percent in 2008 to 4.2 percent in 2012, unemployment rate increased the least for low-skilled people with an agricultural background.