Steady economic growth over the past year has largely bypassed the large non-Western immigrant population in the Netherlands

DPA:

The unemployment rate among non-Western immigrants fell slightly during 2006 to 15.5 per cent from 16.4 per cent a year earlier, with those under the age of 25 accounting entirely for the improvement. There was no decline in unemployment among those older than 25.

"It appears that immigrants profit from an economic revival somewhat later than indigenous people," Michiel Vergeer of the CBS said.

Non-Western migrants are 3.5 times more likely to be unemployed than the indigenous population, where unemployment fell to 4.3 per cent in 2006.

Despite the slight improvement in employment among migrant youths, during 2006 there were on average 20,000 unemployed non-Western immigrants under 25 - equivalent to 22 per cent of the working population in this group.

Among the indigenous population in this group, unemployment fell to 9 per cent from 11 per cent in 2005.

By ethnic group, unemployment is highest among the 323,000 Moroccans, where 17 per cent were unemployed on average through 2006.

By contrast, the unemployment rate among the 332,000 Surinamese was 12 per cent, while the rate for the 364,000 Turks stood at 15 per cent, according to the CBS.

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