Constructing labour market flows for the Netherlands using macro data from social security provisions : 1970-1995

This paper extends and improves a construction method for macro labour market flows developed by Broersma and Den Butter (1994). We use administrative data to derive a set of worker and job flows at the macro level for the Dutch economy for the period 1970-1995 and pay special attention to different social security provisions (welfare, unemployment insurance, occupational disability provisions and (early) retirement). Contrary to the discrete time approach taken by Davis, Haltiwanger and Schuh (1996) our continuous time approach to labour market flows takes into account all flows of workers and jobs in a consistent way and we cover the entire economy. It is argued that labour market dynamics in The Netherlands have increased since the recession in the beginning of the 1980’s. This is mainly due to increased job to job movements and higher inflow into employment from non-participation and unemployed entitled to unemployment insurance provisions.