Number of people working part time in the Netherlands continues to grow
By Simone Jacobs
The number of people in the Netherlands who work between 28 and 35 hours per week has grown. Young parents in particular are more likely to have part-time jobs.
Working part time in the Netherlands becoming more common
New figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) have revealed that during the third quarter of 2025, around 1,9 million people in the Netherlands worked part-time jobs of 28 to 35 hours a week. This is 300.000 more than in the same period four years ago.
Working the equivalent of 3,5 days every week is especially popular among men and women with children. CBS chief economist Peter Hein van Mulligen believes the “relatively large” growth in part-time workers is “related to the desire of young parents to share caregiving responsibilities”, reports NOS.
Around 5,1 million people in the Netherlands work full-time (35 hours or more per week), 20.000 fewer than in Q3 last year, but significantly more than the 4,8 million four years ago. Compared with four years ago, men are working full-time slightly less often, dropping from 82 percent to 81 percent, while women have longer working hours more often, up from 33 percent to 35 percent.
Women work part time more often than men
Despite there being more couples with both partners working part time in the Netherlands, women are still more likely to have part-time jobs than men. According to CBS, 31 percent of women with a partner and children work between 28 and 35 hours a week, while 13 percent of men with children work part time.
Even women without children work shorter workweeks more often than men. 26 percent of childless women with partners work part time, compared to 12 percent of childless men.
"Women provide one and a half times more unpaid care than men, even though a large proportion of couples want to divide it equally," Cécile Wansink of the advocacy organisation Women Inc. told NOS. The organisation believes this is the case because the government has not yet done enough to support a fair division of labour at home, and that free childcare would be an important step to improve this.
Dutch trade union CNV previously urged the government to give parents a year of parental leave to ease the pressure on the childcare sector, which is facing a severe worker shortage. It is believed that this model would also encourage a more balanced division of care responsibilities.
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Editor for the Netherlands at IamExpat Media. Simone studied Genetics and Zoology at the University of Pretoria in South Africa before moving to the Netherlands, where she has been working as a writer and editor since 2022. One thing she loves more than creating content is consuming it, mainly by reading books by the dozen. Other than being a book dragon, she is also a nature lover and enjoys hiking and animal training. Read more