The number of unemployed in the Netherlands fell by 11,000 to 683,000 in August, ending two years of steady increases, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

A fall in youth unemployment accounted for almost all of the reduction, the CBS said.

The official unemployment rate is now 8.6%, down 0.1 percentage point from July.

However, the number of claims for unemployment benefit (ww) rose 1% in August compared with July. In total, 399,000 people are claiming jobless benefits, a rise of 31% on a year ago. In particular, more women and more over-55s joined the benefit queue, the CBS said.

This month consumers are still as pessimistic as they were in August, when there was a slight recovery.