NETHERLANDS – GOVERNMENT SPENDS RECORD HIGH ON TEMP WORKERS AND EXTERNAL HIRING IN 2016

The Dutch Government spent a total of €1.29 billion on consultants, interim managers and temporary workers in 2016, the highest level since the beginning of record keeping in 2009, according to Consultancy.nl.

The figures showed that 59% of that money, or €754 million, was spent on temporary staffing while the rest went mainly to ICT agencies and consulting companies. The €754 million spent on temporary staffing was €100 million higher than in 2015. In 2015, the government spent €1.1 billion on temp workers and external hiring.

The Dutch Government is the largest employer in the Netherlands. The national budget in 2016 stood at €250 billion with 4.7% of this budget, or €12 billion, going to administrative expenditure, or costs incurred to keep the national government. Most of this consisted of labour costs, which amounted to more than €8 billion.

The majority of expenditure on external hiring goes towards operational tasks and activities that require temporary support or backfill.

Of the eleven ministries in the Dutch Government, the Ministry of Finance used external hiring the most, with spending totalling €272.2 million. Meanwhile, 33% of expenditure on external hiring was spent on hiring IT professionals.

source: www2.staffingindustry.com