The non-profit sector provides also one of the highest percentages of employment in the Netherlands (source: www.givingineurope.org).
The 2007 Report by the EESC highlights that approximately 9.5% of the total paid employment (aged 16-65) in the Netherlands works in the non-profit sector. Figures for cooperatives, mutual societies and associations are the following:
– co-operatives: 110,710 employees;
– associations: 661,400 employees,
for a total of 772,110 paid employees in the social economy (2002-2003 data; data for mutual societies were not available).
The non profit sector in the Netherlands is dominated by organisations that provide welfare state services. Thus, by type of activity, the health, the education and the social services sectors recruit the majority of workers, as the Johns Hopkins Comparative Non Profit Sector Project reveals.
Health alone covers 42% of non profit welfare services employment; 28% of people work in the educational field and the rest is employed in social services. The reason is historical: the earliest services delivered by non-profit organisations were in poverty relief, elder care and education.
The presence of paid human resources is less pronounced in organisations that deal with aid to development, advocacy and environmental protection, where only 4% of all non profit workers are employed.
