There were 11.5 million jobs in the Dutch economy in 2023, up from eight million in 1995, according to new figures from national statistics agency CBS.

Healthcare was the biggest sector and women did some 80% of the 1.8 million healthcare jobs, the CBS said.

Women also hold the majority of jobs in education, while in 1995 the number of men and women working in education was roughly equal.

In education, the number of jobs held by men has remained almost stable at around 250,000 thousand, while the number of jobs held by women has risen to 474,000 as the sector grew.

The figures includes all forms of public and private education, including regular education as well as cultural, sports and recreational education for non-professionals and driving schools.

By contrast, in the construction sector – one of the smaller sectors with about 700,000 jobs – nearly 90% were held by men. The number of jobs in the sector grew by 22% between 1995 and 2023 but this was entirely due to the increase in self-employment.