It will become even harder for companies in some sectors to find staff next year and the list of staff shortages is growing by the month, broadcaster NOS said on Friday.

Rob Witjes, head of the labour market information department at state job centre UWV, told NOS that employers will have to become increasingly inventive to find good staff for hard-to-fill vacancies.

In particular, there is a shortage of skilled workers across the construction sector, from builders to plumbers and engineers. Manufacturing too faces a shortage of engineers and welders while in the IT sector there are not enough software developers, security specialists and data managers.

More lorry and bus drivers and planners are needed for the transport sector and there is a general shortage of nursing and care staff, NOS said. Cooks, gardeners, science and language teachers and cleaners are also in short supply.

The unemployment rate in the Netherlands has fallen to well below 5% in 2017.