Youth Unemployment Hits Four-Year High as Entry-Level Jobs Vanish

Young people in the Netherlands are facing a rapidly worsening job market, with youth unemployment reaching its highest level in four years while entry-level job openings have been cut in half over the past three years. The troubling trends suggest artificial intelligence adoption and economic pressures are disproportionately affecting those trying to start their careers.

In the last four years, the unemployment rate for young people ranged from 6.9% to 9.0%. Although youth unemployment has increased in the past three months, Statistics Netherlands reports that labor force participation among young people dropped to 75.2 percent, down from 76.4 percent in August.

The 9% youth unemployment rate stands in stark contrast to overall unemployment, which has stabilised at around 4%. This means young workers are more than twice as likely to be unemployed compared to the general working-age population. The situation is particularly concerning given that youth unemployment typically drops during economic growth periods.

The benefits agency UWV reported 194,100 unemployment benefits at the end of November, 1,300 fewer than at the end of October. Compared with last year, the total number of WW benefits rose by 9.9%, with the largest increases among those over 55 (up 11.6%) and young people under 25 (up 11.3%).

The unemployment figures coincide with a dramatic collapse in entry-level job opportunities. Over the past three years, the number of vacancies for starters in the Netherlands has fallen by half. Three years ago, entry-level positions represented over 20% of the total job market, but this share has now dropped to 10.3%, Intelligence Group reported.

This represents an unprecedented shift in the Dutch labour market. Where one in five job openings used to be accessible to recent graduates and people with little work experience, now only one in ten positions targets this group.

Certain sectors are seeing even sharper declines. In the past year alone, IT saw nearly 70% of junior web developer and app programmer positions vanish. In design, starters are also losing ground: vacancies for graphic designers and multimedia designers fell by almost 60%, while marketing and advertising positions for beginners dropped by 50%.

These dramatic sector-specific drops point to artificial intelligence as a key driver. The UWV notes that the group of people receiving unemployment benefits is getting younger, a trend that may indicate the disappearance of starter jobs. The impact of AI on employment is beginning to appear in small-scale incidents. In the third quarter of 2025, three employers reported to the UWV that AI had led to staff layoffs.

While only three companies have officially reported AI-driven layoffs so far, the UWV acknowledges this likely represents just the visible edge of a much larger trend. Overall, the UWV received 267 notifications of collective dismissals in the first three quarters of 2025, up from 254 for the entirety of 2024. Employers are required to report collective layoffs when more than 20 employees lose their jobs within three months under the Wet melding collectief ontslag (WMCO). However, the UWV said it cannot determine whether the rise in reorganisations is linked to AI, as employers are not obligated to detail the reasons for layoffs.

Entry-level positions in IT and customer service are particularly at risk from AI automation. The work typically assigned to junior employees in these fields: basic coding tasks, routine customer inquiries, data entry, simple graphic design, and content creation, are precisely the tasks that current AI tools can increasingly handle.

This creates a paradox: young people are told to enter tech fields because of high demand and good salaries, yet those same fields are eliminating the entry-level positions that would allow them to gain initial experience and build their careers.

The youth employment crisis is developing against a backdrop of overall labor market stabilisation. Besides the 408,000 unemployed, November saw 3.2 million people who either had not recently searched for a job or were not immediately available to work. Most of these individuals are retirees or are unable to work due to illness or disability, and thus are not included in the labor force. Over the past three months, their numbers grew by an average of 7,000 per month.

For young people specifically, the combination of fewer entry-level openings and rising unemployment creates a difficult situation where gaining the initial work experience needed to advance becomes increasingly challenging. Many may be forced to accept positions well below their qualifications or remain unemployed longer while searching.

A UWV spokesperson indicated the agency plans to collect more detailed information about AI's role in layoffs: "The intention is to ask more concretely, so we can better understand how AI is influencing the labour market." This acknowledgment suggests authorities recognise the trend but don't yet have comprehensive data on its full scope.

For young people entering the job market, the message is sobering: traditional entry-level paths in many fields are narrowing or disappearing. Those starting careers may need to develop skills that complement AI rather than compete with it, focusing on tasks requiring human judgment, creativity, complex problem-solving, and interpersonal skills that remain difficult to automate.

The collapse of entry-level positions also raises questions about how future workers will gain the experience needed to advance to mid-career roles. If junior positions continue disappearing, companies may face a talent pipeline problem in coming years when they need experienced professionals but lack people who've had opportunities to develop those skills.