Young well-educated men are almost twice as likely to be unemployed than their female counterparts, the national statistics office CBS said on Friday.

While there was no difference in their unemployment rates up to 2009, in 2012 well-educated men aged between 25 and 30 now have a jobless rate of 6.2%. But only 3.6% of women of the same age are without work.

The gap is wider when it comes to social science graduates. Well over 8% of men are without work but the jobless rate among women has actually gone down slightly to under 4%, the CBS said.

The unemployment rate among graduates aged 35 to 45 was traditionally higher for women, but that gap has now all but gone. Some 3.5% of male graduates aged 35 to 45 are without a job, compared with 3.7% of women.

The official Dutch unemployment rate is now around 8% but is up to 15% for low-skilled youngsters.