Dutch unemployment climbs further in March

THE HAGUE: Dutch unemployment climbed to 8.1 percent of the workforce in March, and has now gained more than 3.0 percentage points since mid-2011, official data showed on Thursday.

The number of unemployed rose by 30,000 from February and now stood at 643,000 people -- an average increase of 24,000 per month for the first quarter of the year, the central statistics office said.

"Three months ago, the unemployment rate was still at 7.2 percent," the CBS said, noting that in June 2011, the last time a decline was recorded, it still hovered around the 5 percent mark.

The Netherlands which has a little more than 16.5 million inhabitants, classify people aged between 15 and 64 who are looking for work of more than 12 hours a week as unemployed.