Expected unemployment due to arts cuts still at least 3,000

The UWV stated last Thursday that it has no idea how many people have actually been made unemployed by the culture cuts. From a rather ramshackle-looking research by NRC Handelsblad, which looked exclusively at jobs lost in Amsterdam and only at state-subsidised institutions, found that that category alone had generated 600 clients for the UWV. The rest are beyond the scope of the Amsterdam office.

The remaining 2,400 people who expecteding lost their jobs, do not live in Amsterdam, did not work at a state-subsidised institution and - the UWV suspects - probably did not apply for benefits. NRC Handelsblad's claim that they do not exist thus turns out to be incorrect: neither the Amsterdam newspaper nor the Amsterdam UWV has been looking for people who worked at an institution subsidised by one of the funds, or a local government, and lived outside Amsterdam, and it is precisely among these groups that the pain is most severe.

What motivates this newspaper to nonetheless come up with the headline that unemployment is not that bad, will forever remain a mystery, because the newspaper never hesitates. The UWV itself does indicate that they are actually not equipped to really know what is going on there. It is suspected that many people have fled to short-term assignments, or started working as freelancers or self-employed workers.

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Even people who had contracts for only a few hours a week were not included. While everyone in the culture sector knows that people were often paid for 10 hours, but certainly worked 40 hours. Even the UWV admits this: there is a lot of hidden unemployment in the culture sector, and it has only increased because of the cuts. For instance, the number of volunteer hours in the sector has grown exponentially: people love their work and their club so much that they also keep working for free. Without benefits, of course, because that is not allowed.

According to the government, the UWV is only allowed to assist people who were in full employment and have now become fully unemployed. For Amsterdam, then, the number of 600 is probably correct. But that is only a fraction of the total number of people who were put out of work by the arts cuts.