Tracing the Changing Measures of Unemployment in Dutch Unemployment Statistics 1900-1940

In the period before the second World War, the Dutch Bureau of Statistics had developed two sets of indicators of unemployment in the Netherlands. One was based on statistical data of unemployment insurance funds of trade unions and the other one on statistical data of labour exchanges. This paper explores the historical development of these indicators and tries to interpret their meaning over the period 1900 – 1940. In this period various breakpoints can be found in which the interpretation of the indicators had changed. Finally, in order to get insight in the reliability of the two measures of unemployed they are compared to each other for a specific data, namely the 31st of December 1930, when a Dutch census was held.