Netherlands: the manufacturing data behind a 2026 plant decision
The second-highest value added per worker in Western Europe, the tightest labour market of the ten on both measures, industrial power above the EU average, and small plants. The Eurostat figures, with dataset codes and the gaps marked.
Value added and employment
| Indicator | 2024 | 2025 | EU-27 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing gross value added (EUR bn) | 117.0 | 122.9 | 2,668.8 |
| Change on previous year | — | +5.1% | +2.0% |
| Manufacturing share of total gross value added | — | 11.7% | 15.8% |
| Employment, NACE C (thousand persons) | 761.0 | 757.0 | 29,901.6 |
| Value added per person employed (EUR k) | — | 162.3 | 89.3 |
| Productivity per hour, whole economy (PPS, EU-27=100) | 125.1 | 126.0 | 100.0 |
Eurostat nama_10_a10 (B1G, CP_MEUR, NACE C and TOTAL) and nama_10_a10_e (EMP_DC, THS_PER, NACE C), 2024–2025; productivity index from tesem160 (NLPR_HW, PC_EU27_2020_MPPS_CP), whole economy, 2024–2025. Value added per person employed = mfg GVA ÷ mfg employment, nominal current prices, not adjusted for price levels. Extracted 22 September 2026.
EUR 162.3k of value added per person employed is 82% above the EU-27 figure and second only to Denmark, whose number is a pharmaceutical artefact. The Netherlands managed +5.1% of nominal value added on 0.5% fewer people, and its whole-economy productivity index rose rather than fell (125.1 to 126.0). Manufacturing is only 11.7% of Dutch total value added, joint-lowest with Spain.
757,000 manufacturing workers are spread across 85,945 registered manufacturing enterprises (sbs_ovw_act, 2023) — roughly nine employed persons per enterprise, against about fourteen for the EU-27 and thirty-six for Germany. The count includes micro-firms, so read it as an order of magnitude, not an average plant size. It still describes a landscape of small sites, many without a dedicated controls or IT engineer.
Where the value added sits
| Rank | Sub-sector (NACE Rev.2) | GVA 2023 (EUR m) | % of manufacturing GVA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machinery and equipment n.e.c. (C28) | 22,576 | 20.5% |
| 2 | Food, beverages and tobacco (C10–C12) | 18,769 | 17.1% |
| 3 | Basic pharmaceutical products (C21) | 9,921 | 9.0% |
Eurostat nama_10_a64 (B1G, CP_MEUR), 2023, extracted 22 September 2026. Shares are calculated against nama_10_a64's own NACE C total for Netherlands in 2023, EUR 109,965m, which differs marginally from the nama_10_a10 vintage used above.
Machinery n.e.c. is more than a fifth of Dutch manufacturing value added, the highest machinery share of the ten. Fabricated metal (EUR 9,765m) and chemicals (EUR 7,441m) follow pharma. Two very different operations sit under that average: high-mix machine building where batches can be one, and near-continuous food and process plants.
What an hour and a kilowatt-hour cost
| Measure | Period | Netherlands | EU-27 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Labour cost per hour, NACE C | 2023 | EUR 44.8 | EUR 32.1 |
| Labour cost per hour, NACE C | 2024 | EUR 47.3 | EUR 33.8 |
| Labour cost per hour, NACE C | 2025 | n/r | EUR 35.0 |
| Change since 2023 | 2023→25 | +5.6% (2023→24 only) | +9.0% (2023→25) |
| Electricity, band ID, excl. recoverable taxes | 2025-S1 | EUR 0.2273/kWh | EUR 0.1969/kWh |
| Electricity, band ID, excl. recoverable taxes | 2025-S2 | EUR 0.2192/kWh | EUR 0.1920/kWh |
Labour cost: Eurostat lc_lci_lev (unit EUR, lcstruct D1_D4_MD5, NACE C), 2023–2025. Electricity: nrg_pc_205 (siec E7000, nrg_cons MWH2000-19999 = band ID, 2,000–19,999 MWh/year, tax I_TAX, EUR/kWh), 2025-S1 and 2025-S2. Extracted 22 September 2026.
The 2025 Dutch hourly labour cost is not published. Eurostat flags the observation confidential, so the change column here covers 2023 to 2024 only and is not comparable with the two-year changes quoted elsewhere. The last published figure is EUR 47.3 for 2024, against an EU-27 EUR 33.8. A payback model for a Dutch plant should use the 2024 figure and label it, not carry it forward as 2025. Electricity at EUR 0.2192/kWh in 2025-S2 is above the EU-27 average and 2.6 times the Finnish price.
Hiring and labour shortage
| Measure | Netherlands | EU-27 |
|---|---|---|
| Job vacancy rate, NACE C, 2025 (2024) | 3.9% (4.4%) | 1.5% (1.8%) |
| Quarterly vacancy rate, 2025-Q3 / 2025-Q4 | 3.9 / 3.7 | 1.5 / 1.5 |
| Labour limiting production, 2026-Q2 / 2026-Q3 | 24.0% / 26.6% | 15.8% / 18.0% |
Job vacancy rate: Eurostat jvs_a_rate_r2 (NACE C, sizeclas TOTAL, unit AVG_A), 2024–2025, and jvs_q_nace2 (indicator JVR, NACE C, NSA), 2025-Q3 and 2025-Q4. Labour as a factor limiting production: ei_bsin_q_r2 (indic BS-FLP3-PC, s_adj NSA), 2026-Q2 and 2026-Q3 — 2026 quarters, not on the same time base as the annual rate. Extracted 22 September 2026.
This is the one country in the set where the two labour series agree. The manufacturing vacancy rate is 3.9%, 2.6 times the EU-27 average and the highest of the ten; 26.6% of manufacturers name labour as limiting production, against 18.0% for the EU-27 and 5.1% for Italy. Both eased slightly from their previous readings, from 4.4% and from 3.9 in 2025-Q3.
AI and ICT adoption
28.6% of Dutch manufacturers with 10 or more employees used at least one AI technology in 2025, against 18.0% in 2024 and an EU-27 manufacturing average of 17.3% (isoc_eb_ain2, E_AI_TANY, PC_ENT, GE10, NACE C) — fifth of the ten, behind Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Austria. Across all sectors the figure was 33.2% against an EU-27 20.0% (isoc_eb_ai). Eurostat broadened the AI question battery for the 2025 wave, so part of the movement between the two years is methodological. The Digital Intensity Index was not retrieved for the Netherlands in this extraction and nothing is substituted for it.
What this means for a plant here
- The constraint is people, and both measures agree on it. A 3.9% vacancy rate and 26.6% of manufacturers labour-limited. An hour a machine stands still is an hour you cannot re-staff at any price, which is a different argument from Germany's, where the same hour is expensive but replaceable.
- Size the solution for a small site. Roughly nine employed persons per registered manufacturing enterprise against thirty-six in Germany. Whatever gets installed has to be operable by the people already on shift, survive without a controls engineer, and not need a project team the site does not have.
- Machinery n.e.c. is 20.5% of value added, the highest share of the ten. That is the batch-of-one end of discrete manufacturing. A stoppage record designed for a high-volume line — fixed cycle time, stable part number, planned changeovers — will not fit a Dutch machine builder.
- Energy per part is worth metering. EUR 0.2192/kWh in 2025-S2, above the EU-27 average of EUR 0.1920 and 2.6 times the Finnish price. Idle machines drawing power are a visible cost here.
- Do not quote a 2025 Dutch labour rate. Eurostat withheld it. Use EUR 47.3 for 2024 and label it, or the whole business case is resting on a number nobody published.
- Western European manufacturing in 2026: the data
- Germany: the manufacturing data
- Italy: the manufacturing data
- Spain: the manufacturing data
- Portugal: the manufacturing data
Every indicator on this page for 17 European countries and EU-27, each row carrying its Eurostat dataset code and link. Excel.
Questions
- Why is there no 2025 labour cost figure for the Netherlands?
- Eurostat flags the 2025 observation for the Netherlands in lc_lci_lev as confidential and releases no value. The last published figure is EUR 47.3 an hour for 2024. This page writes n/r rather than carrying the 2024 value forward or estimating 2025 from the trend, and the change column for the Netherlands therefore covers 2023 to 2024 only.
- How tight is the Dutch manufacturing labour market?
- The tightest of the ten Western countries on both Eurostat measures. The manufacturing job vacancy rate was 3.9% in 2025 against an EU-27 average of 1.5% (jvs_a_rate_r2), and 26.6% of Dutch manufacturers named labour as a factor limiting production in 2026-Q3 against 18.0% for the EU-27 (ei_bsin_q_r2). Both eased slightly from their previous readings.
- Why is Dutch value added per manufacturing worker so high?
- EUR 162.3k per person employed in 2025 against EUR 89.3k for the EU-27, calculated from nama_10_a10 and nama_10_a10_e. The mix explains a good part of it: machinery n.e.c. is 20.5% of value added and pharma another 9.0%, both high-value-added activities. The figure is nominal and not adjusted for Dutch price levels.
- Which is the largest Dutch manufacturing sub-sector?
- Machinery and equipment n.e.c., EUR 22,576m of gross value added in 2023, 20.5% of Dutch manufacturing (nama_10_a64). Food, beverages and tobacco is second at EUR 18,769m and basic pharmaceutical products third at EUR 9,921m.
- How many Dutch manufacturers use AI?
- 28.6% of those with 10 or more employees in 2025, well above the EU-27 manufacturing average of 17.3% but fifth among the ten countries here, behind Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Austria (isoc_eb_ain2, E_AI_TANY). Eurostat widened the question set for the 2025 wave, so the 18.0% recorded for 2024 is not a comparable baseline.
Sources
- Eurostat nama_10_a10 — gross value added, NACE C and total (2024–2025)
- Eurostat nama_10_a10_e — employment, domestic concept, NACE C (2024–2025)
- Eurostat nama_10_a64 — value added by manufacturing sub-sector (2023)
- Eurostat sbs_ovw_act — number of enterprises, NACE C (2023)
- Eurostat lc_lci_lev — hourly labour cost, NACE C (2023–2025)
- Eurostat nrg_pc_205 — electricity prices, non-household consumers (2025-S1, 2025-S2)
- Eurostat jvs_a_rate_r2 — annual job vacancy rate, NACE C (2024–2025)
- Eurostat jvs_q_nace2 — quarterly job vacancy rate, NACE C (2025-Q3, 2025-Q4)
- Eurostat ei_bsin_q_r2 — factors limiting production, labour (2026-Q2, 2026-Q3)
- Eurostat isoc_eb_ai — enterprises using AI, all sectors (2024–2025)
- Eurostat isoc_eb_ain2 — enterprises using AI, NACE C (2024–2025)
- Eurostat tesem160 — labour productivity per hour worked, PPS, EU-27 = 100 (2024–2025)
Published by TEEPTRAK SAS, which makes production-monitoring and OEE software. Every figure is sourced on the page. Funding rules, standards and reporting duties change: check the official documents before you budget or commit.