Menopause and Sustainable Employability in the Netherlands
What Dutch Workforce Data Shows About Midlife Women and Long-Term Participation
An ageing workforce and sustainable employability
The Netherlands has a steadily ageing workforce. National labour policy increasingly focuses on duurzame inzetbaarheid — sustainable employability — defined as the ability of employees to remain productive, healthy, and engaged throughout longer working lives.
Data from Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS) show that labour force participation among women has increased significantly over the past decades. At the same time, women remain substantially more likely than men to work part-time. According to the Emancipatiemonitor 2024, 65% of employed women worked part-time in 2023.
As retirement age rises, long-term participation of employees aged 45–65 becomes increasingly relevant for workforce continuity.
Sickness absence and age patterns
CBS StatLine data on sickness absence (ziekteverzuim) indicate that women consistently report higher absence rates than men. Age breakdowns show that midlife age groups contribute significantly to total absence figures.
Sickness absence rate (ziekteverzuimpercentage), absence frequency (verzuimfrequentie), and average duration (verzuimduur) are all tracked by CBS with breakdowns by sex and age.
These data sets do not record menopause as a separate category. Absence is classified under broader medical or general illness categories.
Hormone-related complaints and work impact
A joint report by Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek (TNO) and CBS, based on the National Survey on Working Conditions (NEA), documents that hormone-related health complaints in women can affect:
wellbeing at work
perceived productivity
work ability
The report explicitly includes menopause transition as one of the life phases associated with hormone-related complaints.
Separate CBS reporting indicates that a proportion of women with hormone-related symptoms experience hindrance at work. Additional CBS analysis notes that a share of women report hiding hormone-related complaints in the workplace.
Work ability in midlife
Peer-reviewed research based on Dutch worker cohorts (Oude Hengel et al., 2023) reports associations between perimenopausal symptoms and:
lower perceived work ability
higher emotional exhaustion
reduced wellbeing at work
Symptom severity correlates with degree of reported work impairment.
These findings align with CBS and TNO survey data indicating measurable work-related impact during midlife.
Sustainable employability: a structural consideration
CBS StatLine on sustainable employability includes indicators such as:
the age until which employees expect to be able to continue working
the age until which they would like to continue working
satisfaction with working conditions
These indicators are available by sex and age group.
When midlife women report reduced work ability or workplace hindrance linked to hormone-related complaints, this intersects directly with sustainable employability metrics.
Implications for HR and career sustainability
For HR leaders, sustainable employability is not limited to preventing burnout or managing absenteeism. Dutch data demonstrates that:
women in midlife report higher sickness absence
hormone-related complaints affect work experience and productivity
menopause is not systematically recorded as a workplace category
a portion of women conceal related complaints
For women building careers, these findings clarify that changes in energy, work capacity, or resilience in midlife are documented at population level in Dutch workforce research.
The data frames menopause not as an isolated medical event, but as a variable associated with workforce participation and sustainable employability.
Sources
Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS) – Sustainable employability (StatLine)
https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/cijfers/detail/83054NED
Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS) – Sickness absence by age and sex (StatLine)
https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/cijfers/detail/83056NED
Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek + Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek – Hormone-related health complaints and impact on work
https://monitorarbeid.tno.nl/publicaties/hormoongerelateerde-gezondheidsklachten-bij-vrouwen-de-impact-op-werk/
Peer-reviewed study (Oude Hengel et al., 2023) – Perimenopause symptoms and work ability
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37393659/
