The unemployment rate among people with an ethnic minority background rose to 15.5% last year, up nearly 2.5 percentage points on the previous year, the national statistics office CBS said on Friday.

By contrast, the jobless rate among native white Dutch reached 5%, up from 4.2% in 2011.

The increase was sharpest among the under-25s. Some 28% of youngsters with a non-western backround are without a job, compared with just under 10% of native white youths.

However, previous experience shows the jobless total among people with a minority background falls faster than that of native white people once the economy begins to recover, the CBS said.

Unions

Trade union youth wings and the left-wing green party GroenLinks on Friday launched a new campaign to draw attention to the ‘extremely worrying socio-economic position’ of youngsters.

‘Young people are four times as likely to get into debt and their jobless rate is soaring,’ the CNV’s youth wing said in a statement.

Kai Heijneman, chairman of students’ union LSVb, said the financial position of students will be even worse when government plans to scrap grants and travel passes come into effect.

‘Students currently have an average income around subsistance level, but will lose 20% to 40% of their income through these changes,’ he said.