Dutch CBS Survey: 30% of Firms Now Turn to AI and Robots Over Wage Hikes to Tackle Staff Shortages — Largest Shift in Employer Strategy in Years

A CBS national statistics office survey conducted with KVK, EIB, MKB-Nederland, and VNO-NCW found that 64% of Dutch companies faced staff shortages in April 2026, with 30% citing automation as their primary response — up sharply from a year earlier when raising wages and improving employer attractiveness was the dominant strategy. Large companies are automating at twice the rate of small firms (40% vs. 20%), with the steepest surge in information and communication sectors, which reached 44% up from 29%. The data provides concrete national-level evidence of AI and robotics beginning to substitute for wage competition as a labor market response.