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Research & Training
Research in European labour markets, statistical job market research, open source knowledge and professional HR + recruitment training.
Labour market research
Open source research into labour markets and HR strategy.
IPMERC Research maps the labour markets of Europe through statistical research.
372,000 part-timers want more hours, against 297,000 unemployedIn 2025 the Netherlands counted 372,000 part-timers who want to work more hours, against 297,000 unemployed people. The largest untapped group on the labour market already has a job. Part-timers say they want 2 to 2.5 extra hours a week on average. At a client with twenty part-timers that is more than a full working week, without a single new candidate.August 20265 min read1.87 million workers leave within ten yearsOf the 9.42 million Dutch people working between the ages of 15 and 64, 1.87 million are between 55 and 64: 19.9%. They leave the labour market within roughly ten years. That is not a cycle and not a growth scenario, it is an age structure already fixed. The demand for staff it creates exists regardless of what the economy does, while the inflow meant to absorb it is smaller than the outflow.August 20265 min readConstruction and the grid need 103,000 people before 2029Construction needs 75,000 new full-time workers between 2026 and 2029, of which education can supply roughly 50,000 and 25,000 must come from lateral entry. Grid operators need 28,000 technicians by 2029, 23,000 of them at contractors. Healthcare projects a shortfall of 155,000 by 2032, against 37,000 in 2021. These are the three sectors where the vacancy rate barely fell after 2022.August 20265 min readIn construction the vacancy rate went from 7.5% to 7.4%Between mid-2022 and mid-2025 the Dutch vacancy rate fell from 5.1% to 4.2%. That average hides the real story. In ICT the rate dropped from 8.2% to 5.1%, in trade and hospitality from 6.6% to 4.7%. In construction it went from 7.5% to 7.4%, and in healthcare from 4.4% to 4.3%. Two sectors barely cooled at all, and they are exactly the sectors where production cannot be postponed or automated.August 20265 min readMore graduates, the same shortageThe Netherlands produced 8,710 ICT graduates at bachelor and master level in 2024, against 3,101 in 2015. That is a rise of 181% in nine years, far faster than the 28% growth in total graduates. Yet the share of companies with hard-to-fill IT vacancies stayed around 63%. More supply from education has not resolved the shortage, and this report sets out why.August 20265 min read36,000 more people in IT, and the market still coolsThe Dutch IT labour market has been cooling since 2023. Yet employment in IT occupations grew by 36,000 year on year in the second quarter of 2026, the largest increase of any occupational group. Those figures do not contradict each other: the market is normalising after an exceptional peak, but the constraint has moved from volume to fit. In 2024, 63% of companies that tried to recruit IT staff failed to fill every vacancy.August 20266 min readCloud in seven firms out of ten, ICT staff in threeIn 2024, 71.0% of Dutch enterprises with 10 or more employees bought paid cloud services. In the same year 29.7% of them employed an ICT specialist. By 2025, 55.4% of Dutch enterprises hosted a database or their files with a cloud provider against 24.0% across the European Union, and only Denmark was higher at 55.5%. Migration off those services requires ICT staff. Of the Dutch enterprises that tried to recruit an ICT specialist in 2024, 63.1% were left with a vacancy they could not fill, and the reason cited most often was that nobody applied. When the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets surveyed 420 business cloud users, 172 had at some point tried to switch provider. For 52 of them the attempt failed, which is 30.2% of all attempts. Among those that did switch, 52.5% used an intermediary.August 20269 min readLabour supply barely grows again before 2040Labour scarcity is no longer a matter of the business cycle. The Dutch central bank concluded in 2024 that an ageing population leaves labour supply barely growing through to 2040. If supply stops growing, demand adapts: firms scale work back, raise its price, or automate it. Business services already shows this. In numbers the gap is nearly closed; in quality it is wide.August 20266 min readArchitecture pays best: a median of €7,800 a monthMedian gross monthly salaries per IT market in the Netherlands, based on 1,115 observations from 968 candidates.August 20265 min read72% of candidates do not get past the first interviewLead times, dropout rates and salary bands by seniority across twelve IT markets.August 20265 min readAmsterdam dominates every IT market except Embedded and PHPDistribution of IT candidates across Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and the rest of the Netherlands per market.August 20265 min readThe five-attempt rule comes from a 1942 surveyWhere the sales myth comes from and what large datasets show about following up with clients.12 min readStructured conversationsA framework for opening, questioning, proposing, handling resistance and closing.24 min read
68
measured signals behind the market reading
13
published papers those signals come from
11 of 12
Dutch job families with enough evidence to read
11
primary sources behind the corpus
Every figure is counted from the published signals and recomputed each quarter. Figures as of 2026-Q3. Sources checked 2 September 2026.
Practice
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Scored assessments and scenario exercises tied to the knowledge base. Consultants who answer wrong get linked straight to the reference material. Managers see scores across the team.
Live training
Trainer guides that run the session for you.
Every program ships with a trainer guide, printable hand-outs, and scored exercises. A team lead can take a session from the shelf and run it the same afternoon.
Integrations
Works with the CRM you already use.
IPMERC exposes a REST API and plugins, so your own CRM can surface the right framework answer at every pipeline stage. Keep your pipeline where it lives. Bring the training and knowledge to it.
Recent research, openly published.
August 2026
Three new studies from IPMERC Research: salary data across twelve IT markets, process analysis with dropout rates and salary bands, and the geographic distribution of IT professionals in the Netherlands.
August 2026
5 min read
Salary analysis by market
1,115 observations, 12 IT markets. Cloud declining slightly, Architecture stable at €7,800.
Cloud, quarterly median
Read the report
August 2026
5 min read
Process analysis and salary bands
72% dropout at IV1. Average time from intake to placement: 47 days.
Proposal100%
IV1100%
After IV128%
Placed18%
Read the report
August 2026
5 min read
Geographic distribution of IT markets
Amsterdam: 42% of the IT market. Utrecht: 24% Data. Rotterdam: strong in Cloud.
Amsterdam42%
Utrecht18%
Rotterdam14%
Other26%
Read the report
Monthly Market Data
Every dataset behind these cells, checked on the first of the month against its own release record. A release here is not yet a change in a cell: it becomes one only when a person has read the figure.
5.3%Dutch ICT vacancy rate, 2026-Q1, against 2.6% across the EU27
Belgium6.8%
Netherlands5.3%p
Norway4.3%
Sweden3.6%
Germany3.2%
Denmark2.8%p
France2.7%
European Union2.6%
Finland2.1%
5.1%Dutch ICT vacancy rate, 2026-Q2, provisional
2025-Q15.2%e
2025-Q25.1%e
2025-Q34.7%e
2025-Q44.8%e
2026-Q15.3%p
2026-Q25.1%p
Newest releases
Enterprises by detailed NACE Rev. 2 activity sbs_ovw_act published to 2024. Touches every cell.1 September 2026
Unemployment by sex and age, monthly une_rt_m published to 2026-07. Touches every cell.1 September 2026
Graduates by education level and field of education educ_uoe_grad02 published to 2024. Touches 3 job families.26 August 2026
Show all 25Show fewer
Job vacancy statistics by NACE Rev. 2.1 activity, quarterly jvs_q_r21 published to 2026-Q2. Touches every cell.19 August 2026
Labour cost index, nominal, quarterly lc_lci_r2_q published to 2026-Q2. Touches every cell.19 August 2026
Labour market transitions, quarterly lfsi_long_q published to 2026-Q1. Touches every cell.5 August 2026
Employed persons working from home lfsa_ehomp published to 2025. Touches every cell.30 June 2026
Employed persons by detailed economic activity, annual lfsa_egan22d published to 2025. Touches every cell.30 June 2026
Employed persons by professional status and occupation, annual lfsa_egais published to 2025. Touches every cell.30 June 2026
Employed persons with tertiary education in STEM fields by occupation hrst_stem_occ published to 2025. Touches 2 job families.24 June 2026
Artificial intelligence by size class of enterprise isoc_eb_ai published to 2025. Touches 2 job families.15 June 2026
Enterprises that recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists isoc_ske_itrcrn2 published to 2024. Touches 6 job families.15 June 2026
Enterprises that employ ICT specialists isoc_ske_itspen2 published to 2024. Touches 6 job families.15 June 2026
Enterprises that provided ICT training to their personnel isoc_ske_ittn2 published to 2024. Touches 6 job families.15 June 2026
Participation in education and training by educational attainment trng_lfs_18 published to 2024. Touches every cell.11 June 2026
Labour market slack by sex and age, annual lfsi_sla_a published to 2025. Touches every cell.11 June 2026
Young people neither in employment nor in education (NEET rates) edat_lfse_20 published to 2025. Touches every cell.11 June 2026
Employed ICT specialists isoc_sks_itspt published to 2025. Touches 1 job family.17 April 2026
Duration of working life lfsi_dwl_a published to 2025. Touches every cell.17 April 2026
ICT sector personnel in total employment isoc_bde15ap published to 2023. Touches 1 job family.16 April 2026
ICT sector in gross value added isoc_bde15ag published to 2023. Touches 1 job family.16 April 2026
Job vacancy statistics by NACE Rev. 2 activity, quarterly (2001 to 2025) jvs_q_nace2 frozen at 2025-Q4. Succeeded by jvs_q_r21.20 March 2026
Cloud computing services by size class of enterprise isoc_cicce_use published to 2025. Touches 2 job families.27 February 2026
Cloud computing services by activity and NUTS 2 region isoc_r_cicce_usen2 published to 2025. Touches 2 job families.27 February 2026
Structure of earnings survey, monthly earnings earn_ses_monthly published to 2022. Touches every cell.9 February 2026
Checked 2 September 2026.
Source: Eurostat, dissemination API. CC BY 4.0, attribution required.
Organised around how recruiters work, not how software thinks.
The knowledge is organised around the methods recruitment, headhunting, executive search, and talent acquisition professionals already run on. Every entry maps cleanly back to one of these, so when a specialist asks "what do I say next?" (on a sales call or in an HR interview), the answer is one click away.
IPMERC
Intro, Probe, Match, Expand, Rules of Engagement, Close
The six-phase structure for a recruitment sales call, from opening to a confirmed next step.
WRIOC
Welcome, Re-examine, Isolate, Overcome, Close
The objection-handling pattern. Surface what's underneath, isolate the real concern, then answer.
FAB
Feature, Advantage, Benefit
Translate what you do into what the buyer gets. Every FAB is paired to the pain point it answers.
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Programs, a living knowledge base, and scored practice are the core. Connect it to your own CRM with a REST API or a plugin.
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The training dashboard: what needs attention, where it came from, and the training assigned to them.
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TrainingCRMSettings
Good morning, Daniel
Today: what needs your attention, your pipeline, and the right knowledge for your current work.
Search the knowledge base by situation or objection
Today
Follow-up call, Van Dijk Recruitment09:30
Prospect replied on fees, WRIOC objection2 new
Assessment due, IPMERC FoundationsToday
Intake with candidate, backend engineer14:00
Your pipeline
12
Active introductions
34
Active prospects
7
New leads this week
82%
Assessment average
Programs
All programsIPMERC 101Foundations
Opening the recruitment sales call
The intro phase, from first sentence to permission to continue.
WRIOC 220Intermediate
Handling the fee objection
Welcome the objection before answering it.
FAB 101Foundations
Feature, advantage, benefit
Translate what you do into what the buyer gets.
09:41
IPMERC
Good morning, Daniel
Search knowledge
Today
Follow-up call, Van Dijk09:30
Reply on fees2 new
Assessment dueToday
Continue
WRIOC-220
Handling the fee objection
Exercise 3 of 8
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Solo operators get a structured reference for every call and every objection. No team to learn from, but the same playbook the best teams run on, always one search away.