What can we expect next year? Both Van Mulligen and Phlippen point to the shortage on the labor market as a major theme for 2022.
“If the labor market is tight, it is almost inevitable that prices will rise,” says Van Mulligen. “If it’s hard to get staff, then wages go up and you get higher inflation.” At the moment this is not yet the case in the Netherlands, but the fact that such a wage-price spiral could develop in the long term is also a concern of, among others, De Nederlandsche Bank.
That shortage still poses a major challenge for 2022, says Phlippen. “The problem on the labor market is actually the driver of many other problems. Construction has to be done, but the people are not there. The energy transition must be faster, but we do not have the people. The same applies to education and healthcare.”
There is insufficient policy to solve this shortage, but it is desperately needed, concludes Phlippen. “You can think of everything, a large-scale labor mobility program, for example. And we can also have an immigration debate. But without extra staff we can expect little from solving those big issues in 2022.”
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