The number of people receiving unemployment benefits (WW) in the Randstad region has increased by 77 percent in the period of 2008 to 2012, Statistics Netherlands has revealed.

While there has also been a slight rise in the number of people receiving income support in the conurbation, the areas outside of the region have seen a more prominent rise in this regard.

The rise in income support benefits recorded within the Randstad was 15 percent compared with a 23 percent rise outside of the four main Dutch cities, although the distribution of those on income support is much higher in the most urbanised region of the country than outside of it.

The WW statistics on unemployment benefits extend logically from the large rise in the number of jobs lost in the Randstad, where 57 percent of bankruptcies recorded occurred in the conurbation.

This is a particularly significant figure considering that less than half of all businesses in the Netherlands are based in the region.

Looking at the figures based on the share of persons receiving WW benefits (that is, looking at the number of people in every 1.000 claiming support) the increase is even starker: a 90 percent jump between 2008 and 2012.

While business is in the Amsterdam area seems to have maintained a relatively healthy level of growth in the past year, these statistics from the Randstad area suggest that the major metropolitan areas of the Netherlands have yet to turn a corner in the face of economic instability.