THE HAGUE, 31/01/07 - Unemployment among people with a non-western foreign background is falling much more slowly than that among the native Dutch population. Ethnic minorities are now 3.5 times more likely to be unemployed than the Dutch.

Unemployment among non-westerners in the Netherlands was 15.5 percent in 2006. This was a slight decrease compared with 2005, when it was 16.4 percent. The decrease was completely accounted for by the youngest age group (15-24). For people with a non-western foreign background aged over 25 years, unemployment did not decrease at all.

For the native Dutch population unemployment fell much faster. In 2006, 4.3 percent of them were unemployed. People with a non-western foreign background are thus 3.5 times as likely to be unemployed than the native Dutch, a difference which has increased in recent years.

In 2006, 22 percent of 15-24 year-olds with a non-western background were unemployed. One year previously this was 26 percent. Unemployment among them was thus nearly 2.5 times as high as that among their native Dutch peers; in this latter group unemployment fell from nearly 11 percent to just over 9 percent.

Moroccans have had the highest rates of unemployment for years. In 2006, 17 percent of this group (15-64 year olds) were unemployed. This means they were 1.5 times as likely to be unemployed as the Surinamese (12 percent), who are the immigrant group with traditionally the lowest rates of unemployment.