Number of Dutch Employees Working Beyond State Pension Age Reaches 152,000

The number of people working under employment contracts in the Netherlands after reaching the state pension age stood at 152,000 in the second quarter of 2026, up from 96,000 in early 2018. The latest count represents 1.7% of all employees, compared with 1.2% in the first quarter of 2018, according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS).

The increase amounts to 56,000 people, or roughly 58%, across the two reporting periods. CBS released the figures on October 21 as part of its Labour Market Mobility Monitor, which also tracks where workers are employed and how they move between industries. The new CBS figures show that paid work beyond pension eligibility is becoming more common, even though it still accounts for a small fraction of Dutch employment.

The distinction between employees and everyone who works is important. These figures cover people with an employment contract, not the entire population earning income after pension age, such as those working solely on a self-employed basis. The 1.7% is a share of employees of all ages; it is not the proportion of pension-age residents who are still working.

More recent data show the older-employee share rising from 1.52% in the second quarter of 2024 to 1.62% a year later and 1.72% in the second quarter of 2026. The upward movement is visible across comparable second-quarter readings, not just in the longer comparison with early 2018.

Property and transport have the highest shares of older employees

The national figure conceals pronounced differences among industries. In real estate activities, 4.3% of employees were older than the state pension age in the second quarter of 2026. Transport and storage followed at 3.6%, more than twice the 1.7% rate across all sectors.

Specialised business services and agriculture, forestry and fishing each recorded 2.9%. The proportion was 2.5% in other services, 2.4% in culture, sports and recreation, and 2.2% in financial services. Trade, at 1.9%, was closer to the national average.

At the other end of the range, only 0.6% of employees in public administration and government services were beyond pension age. Information and communication registered 0.7%, while accommodation and food services had 1.1%. Health and social care stood at 1.2%, and education at 1.3%.

These are proportions within each industry, rather than a breakdown of where the 152,000 older employees work. A relatively small sector can have a high percentage without employing the largest number of pension-age workers. The data also do not establish whether differences reflect recruitment practices, available work arrangements or employees’ personal reasons for remaining on the job.

The gender figures reveal another persistent divide. Among all men employed under contracts, 2.32% were beyond the state pension age in the second quarter of 2026, against 1.08% among employed women. In the first quarter of 2018, the corresponding figures were 1.77% and 0.61%. Both groups have recorded increases of about half a percentage point, but the male share remains more than twice as high.

As with the sector statistics, those percentages use all male or female employees as the denominator. They should not be read as the proportion of all older men or women who choose to stay in employment. CBS does not identify a reason for the gap in its release.

Older employees are still changing jobs and industries

Working beyond pension age does not always mean staying with the same employer or even in the same line of work. CBS counted just over 20,000 people above the state pension age entering employment in an industry in the second quarter of 2026 where they had not held an employment contract a year earlier. This age group made up 1.3% of all such entrants.

Around half of those older entrants had been employed in another industry, while the remainder had not been working under an employment contract. The latter category should not automatically be treated as people coming out of retirement: the published definition does not establish what each person was doing before the new job.

CBS measures these changes by comparing employment in a given sector with the position in the same quarter a year earlier. An entrant can therefore be someone moving between sectors, not necessarily an addition to the total number of people in work. Similarly, a departure from one industry does not always mean that the person has stopped earning wages altogether.

People above pension age accounted for 2.2% of all departures recorded in the mobility statistics. CBS says retirement is the main reason older people leave wage employment, but a minority continue in a different sector. Among departing employees already beyond pension age, 9% moved into employment in another industry.

The mobility data provide a different perspective from the 152,000 headline count. The total describes how many employees were beyond pension age at a particular point; the flow figures show changes in sector employment over a year. They cannot simply be added to or subtracted from the total to calculate growth, particularly when a worker switching industries appears on both sides of the movement.

State pension payments can continue alongside earnings

The state pension age in the Netherlands has risen gradually since 2013 and is currently 67. The Dutch scheme is commonly known as AOW, after the General Old Age Pensions Act. Because the qualifying age changed during the period covered by the CBS comparison, the label “above state pension age” has not referred to exactly the same age threshold in every year.

Reaching that threshold does not prohibit paid employment. Under Dutch government guidance on working after state pension age, someone may be able to continue on an existing contract, although some employment or collective agreements end automatically at the pension threshold. In those circumstances, an employee who wants to stay can discuss a new contract with the employer.

For employees considering whether to keep working, an important financial point is that wages do not reduce their AOW state pension. The government says supplementary pensions already built up through an employer or private insurer are not deducted from AOW payments either. This allows earnings and state pension income to overlap, although salary remains subject to tax.

Employment protections also change after the pension threshold. The statutory minimum wage and minimum holiday allowance continue to apply, but people working past state pension age are generally no longer covered by unemployment and incapacity insurance. Certain sickness-benefit rights can remain, and the usual transition payment is not due when an employment contract ends at or after pension age.

Neither the mobility figures nor the industry breakdown show how many of these older employees work full-time, how much they earn, or whether they have stayed because of financial needs or personal preference. The counts cannot establish why any individual has chosen to keep working.