The Dutch economy will grow robustly in 2021 at 4.3%, exceeding pre-crisis levels by the end of 2021, before expanding by 3.2% in 2022 and 1.8% in 2023. Private consumption will drive growth as households’ saving rates continue to normalise after rising sharply early in the pandemic. Private investment is recovering more slowly due to lingering uncertainty. As the economy recovers and job vacancies increase, unemployment will remain at low levels.
The pandemic highlighted job insecurity of non-standard work contracts, which represent a considerable share of employment. To prevent a long-lasting impact on workers, the top policy priority should be to improve the targeting of active labour market policies. Increasing resilience and inclusiveness of the labour market will necessitate rebalancing the employment protection on various types of contracts in the longer term.
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2021 Structural Reform Priorities