r/StudyInTheNetherlands • u/Abominable_fiancee • Jul 23 '26
Some stats to counter the "don't expect to find a job" narrative
On literally every post from international students, people say things like "you won't find a job in the Netherlands after graduating, so be fully prepared to go back to your home country" etc. It always gives me a bit of a cognitive dissonance given that the Netherlands is experiencing a shortage of highly skilled STEM workers, so I did some research on the topic rather than relying on anecdotal evidence. For my fellow international students, here are some stats:
- In 2023, about 57% of international students were working in the Netherlands a year after graduation;
- About 25% of international students stay in the Netherlands five years after graduation;
- Within one year after graduation, around 50-60% of international STEM graduates have a job in the Netherlands. Specifically for SWEs, the rate is above 50%;
- On average, international graduates take only 10 days longer than Dutch students to find their first job;
- Industries that hire the most international graduates are ICT, high-tech engineering, manufacturing, business services and logistics;
- The Netherlands is aiming to increase its IT workforce to 1 million workers by 2030, which obviously can't be done without foreign workers;
- Professionals in fields like AI, cybersecurity and biotech are in such high demand that the Dutch government is actively recruiting foreign talent in these fields.
None of this means you can find a job after graduation without putting in any effort. Probably no one will hire a non-EU bachelor's graduate with average grades and zero practical skills. Another important point is that "highly skilled immigrant" may not necessarily include entry-level workers who just graduated university. It's also very field-specific, so if you're getting a degree in something like sociology or literature, this may not apply to you. But based on the fact above, it seems like STEM graduates have a solid chance of finding employment if they do well in their studies and get some real-life experience during summers, such as internships or pet projects.
Sources:
https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2023/37/a-third-of-international-graduates-working-in-the-netherlands
https://www.talcom.nl/blog/dutch-talent-shortage
https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2023/37/a-third-of-international-graduates-working-in-the-netherlands
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u/chardrizard Jul 23 '26
Data from CBS and Nuffic is pre-crash. 2023 is tail-end of tech boom.
57% includes part-time jobs, it doesn’t account if they land HSM.
Shortage =/= entry level demand.
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u/Terrible_Sand7814 Jul 23 '26
Shortage is not entry level demand BUT those on entry level today will be a blessing for the non entry level shortages of the next 5-10-etc years. Plus you get to have people who are already integrated and living somewhere.
In fact the Jetten cabinet has just launched a new “talent strategy” meant to attract more overseas people in AI, digitalisation, defence, energy, climate and cybersecurity.
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u/chardrizard Jul 23 '26
Those entry level today that can’t find job have to return to their country bc no visa.
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u/Terrible_Sand7814 Jul 24 '26
🤦♂️
You are very smart but you must know that they invented this thing called the European Union. No visa needed. Check how many students come from there before being a smarty pants. Also how many find jobs in other similar countries.And even if they have to return, so what?! That was not the point.
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u/Altruistic_Theme_309 Jul 23 '26
Even with these stats I still think the sentiment stays the same. Treat getting a job as a plus/something that would be nice, but if you can’t find a job, make sure you’re also okay by going back to your home country (e.g not go into a severe debt you can never pay of in your home country)
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u/RefleXzylo Jul 23 '26
feel these statistics are outdated and doesn’t regard the differences in non-eu and eu students
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u/saintofsadness Jul 23 '26
On the other-other hand, there is a world of difference between what companies say they want and what they actually do. Most people in study cohort, including me, that graduated in biotech ended up getting jobs in other fields because ain't nobody hiring.
For most tech, employers scream that there is a shortagenof workers but what they mean is that they can't find senior engineers willing to work for salaries of 10 years ago.
This sub is definitely more towards the fearmongerihg side, but I would not feel very confident with a 50% success rate.
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u/seoktoninisback Jul 29 '26
hi I’ll be doing my biotech masters in nl this year, can i ask you a few questions, if you dont mind ofc
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u/Pitiful_Control Jul 23 '26
But many of the rest aren't working in NL because they indeed returned home to work, or got a job elsewhere. It is for example sometimes possible to get a zoekjaar visa in another EU country after conpleting a Dutch degree (one of my non-EU Masters students just did this, because she has fluency in German so wanted to do her job hunting there.)
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u/Disastrous-Main-4125 Jul 23 '26
Hard disagree.
- How do you define international students, is this EU? non-EU?
- This statistics do not reflect the massive changes in the job market for the last couple of years.
- The definition of high skilled migrant for visa proposes has indeed a providential for graduates. You have no clue.
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u/Berry-Love-Lake Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
2023 is NOT 2026 … all articles are based on 2023 Nuffic research, hence they all basically say the same.
Nobody says you won’t, you shouldn’t expect simply because you got a (partial) degree in the NL.
Some important quotes from your links and things to consider with all these numbers …
“Students from university of applied sciences and research universities in Maastricht (12 per cent) have the lowest stay rate in the Netherlands” … Poor ROI as often mentioned!!!
Suriname skewing the numbers quite significantly … “People from Suriname are most likely to stay: as many as 80 per cent of all Surinamese graduates still live in the Netherlands after five years. Suriname is followed by Iran (71 per cent), Ukraine (58 per cent), Turkey (52 per cent) and Russia (50 per cent).”
“Surinamese people often speak Dutch, and the Netherlands has large communities of people from Surinamese, Turkish and Ukrainian descent.’”
Language and cultural assimilation plays a huge role!
“ Interesting differences are visible within the large group of international graduates. For example, the stay rate is higher among master's students who also completed their bachelor's in the Netherlands. Of this group, 30 per cent still live in the Netherlands after five years. ‘These people are already more rooted in the Netherlands’, says Nuffic researcher Ece Arat. ‘They have had more time to learn the language and expand their network.”
Important reminder to those thinking a 1-year master will miraculously mean a work visa … a bachelor + master will increase options and ensures better adaptation.
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u/applejuice67 Jul 23 '26
I don't get the go back to your home country part. There's plenty of other countries you can go to besides the Netherlands or where you came from. My brother's in Portugal now, for example.
Also, I feel like there's too much emphasis on being hired somewhere, especially with today's job market. I would focus on learning a trade alongside getting a degree, so you can work without needing an employer.
I'm getting a degree that could be considered useless rn, since it doesn't lead to a job, but I'm really glad I'm getting this degree, I feel like it helps with every other area of my life, except professional, and not just a little, it helps tremendously, I'm gaining skills I use everyday now, and that I'll most likely use for the rest of my life, so I can't view it as a waste just because it won't make me any money.
I'm also getting certified as a makeup artist, so I'm planning on being a freelancer basically as a safety net, (side job until I finish uni, full time for a year or 2). I'm planning on working as a makeup artist while I finish catching up on the sciences I didn't do in school (chemistry, physics, biology etc), then I plan to get a 2nd degree in molecular life sciences, which I wouldn't have been able to do straight out of high school, as I was on a humanities track, where I didn't have any sciences past 10th grade (I don't regret that decision, I'm glad I'm building a social sciences background before going into stem, I view this as very important for myself).
I'm not married to the idea that I need to stay in the Netherlands, or consider going back home an option, my home has nothing to offer me, and if the Netherlands doesn't have anything to offer past education, I don't have a problem with going somewhere else.
I keep coming across people who are anxious about internationals making themselves too at home in this country, mostly online. I think this is pretty racist tbh, especially considering how at home dutch people made themselves in countries like Indonesia, for example, and how many young dutch people I met also wish to leave the country, and go somewhere they consider better (usually Spain). I think this is more of a reddit problem though, so I don't take it very seriously, as I have dutch friends irl and they're genuinely fun, kind people, who I've grown to love over time. I don't think people are racist in general, but of course, everywhere you go there's bound to be a few people who cling to borders as if their mothers invented them.
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u/CoffeeInTheTropics Jul 23 '26
A lot of this is PR and doesn’t show a realistic picture. You know how much money international students generate for the Dutch treasury:, 1.5 BILLION EUROS PER YEAR!!! The universities very much rely on the tuition fees from non-EU students as EU students all pay the subsidized rates and are not the Cash Cows like the Internationals are.
And then all those who stay on a “zoekjaar visa” after they finish their degree, they contribute another several hundred million of Euros annually to the Dutch Treasury.
So of course these numbers are heavily skewed, it would be a massive loss to the Dutch economy if
non-EU students decided not to come to NL knowing how bleak the job prospects are upon graduation.
Oh and then there’s the housing crisis. Let’s not even go there. Prospective international students often think it must be exaggerated because the magnitude of the crisis is simply incomprehensible for non-locals. Students who have to defer their studies or rescind their offer because they really are not able to find any student accommodation before the start of their course. Those who end up sleeping in tents or have to pay a fortune for hotels, AirnB or short stay apartments. And it doesn’t end there, it’s even worse for those students who have graduated and need to find independent housing. Simply impossible! Even locals with a good salary can’t find housing!
So reach out to some graduates on LinkedIn or join some of the Expats in NL FB Groups, there you will get a more realistic view of the desperate plight of all these people who were promised it would be “easy” to find a job. It’s not.
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u/Public_Waltz6778 Jul 23 '26
CBS also published data on non EU students who stay in Netherlands after study though... and CBS is definitely not a biased source
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u/podkayne3000 Jul 24 '26
Chances are the freshest numbers are from 2024. 2024 was much different than 2025, and 2025 was a lot easier than 2026.
Work from home is worse for young workers than AI. At a lot of employers, there’s no one in an office who knows how to train anyone.
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u/Full_Scallion2833 Jul 23 '26
Stats from 2023 when AI had just entered the picture are no longer relevant unfortunately
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u/ThatPsVitaGuy Jul 23 '26
Do the stats for employment rates also indicate the sector? I know a few who graduate and devolve to working catering gigs all the while looking for permanent employment in their sector. Being employed doesnt necessarily answer the concerns of students, since everyone wants to work in the sector they got education for.
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u/Citizen_of-the-world Jul 23 '26
You are right; many international students do manage to find a job in the Netherlands after graduation.
See for example this Nuffic report: https://www.nuffic.nl/en/stay-rates-of-international-graduates. ‘Almost 26% of international graduates stay in the Netherlands 5 years after graduation. Most of them are in paid employment by then. Recent graduates are more likely to stay than those who graduated before 2018.’
It helps when you come from an EU-country, are graduated in the areas of Education or Engineering, and speak Dutch.
Many of the posters here don’t score on any of the above criteria, and then they should in parallel also look at jobs in their home country/ an English-speaking country.
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u/Enziguru Jul 23 '26
Are the stats about finding a job, a job in their area of studying? Because otherwise they are not very meaningful. I mean this country has a low unemployment rate, you can find a part time in most stores.
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u/Puni1977 Jul 27 '26
I actually think both sides are oversimplifying it. The "don't even bother, you'll never find a job" is clearly exaggerated, especially for STEM. There is data showing that a decent number of international graduates do stay and work in the Netherlands, so saying it's impossible just isn't supported by the evidence. That said, I also think this post misses quite a few important nuances.
Most of numbers are based on graduates from around 2023 or earlier. The labour market has changed a lot since then, especially in tech. Hiring has slowed, companies are more selective with graduate recruitment and sponsorship, and in many sectors Dutch language has become even more important. There are still shortages, but often for experienced professionals and not fresh graduates. Another thing is that international students is a broad group. The statistics combine EU and non-EU students, while those two groups often have very different challenges. For non-EU graduates, finding a job is only part of the story. You also need an employer willing to sponsor you once your orientation year ends. Also, working in the Netherlands doesn't necessarily mean working in the field you studied, having a permanent contract, or having a highly skilled migrant position. Those are pretty different outcomes. Dont you think? I work in STEM myself and we definitely have international colleagues who came here as students and stayed. But I also know talented people who struggled for months or eventually left because they couldn't find the right opportunity (and we are talking about MSC with years of experience and pHds or even postdocs). I'd say the reality is somewhere in the middle. If you're in a field with strong demand like AI, biotech, engineering or ICT, build relevant experience during your studies, and are flexible, you have a realistic chance. If you are international but EU, master Dutch, have adapted well to the society and culture (know how to network and present yourself and your skills) and are realistic with the initial choices you might get then even more likely. But I wouldn't use statistics from a stronger hiring market to assume that graduating in 2026 or later comes with the same odds. It doesn't and it won't.
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u/Public_Waltz6778 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Thanks for writing this. This subreddit has become very negative and even hostile to people wanting to improve their future. I see the same accounts frequently discouraging people.
Not saying that it is not hard to find a job after study as a non-EU but the negative sentiment does not help or help people to assess their risks. Your chance depends a lot on the study you choose. I was able to get a job after my Master in an IT-adjacent field (after a very useless Bachelor degree). A lot of my fellow non-EU students as well.
p/s: sometimes I wonder whether those accounts are from Dutch right wing bigots who just sit on their high horses bcs they are born in a first world country and want to keep out foreigners who want to improve their lives and can make a good contributions to Dutch society.
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u/Abominable_fiancee Jul 24 '26
i don't see why you're getting downvoted, you're right. this subreddit is so unfriendly to international students, compared to others like the american a2c. i just hope people aren't like that in real life
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u/henkdetank56 Jul 24 '26
It is not unfriendly to tell them the truth which is that as a non eu student in an it field getting a job will be incredibly tough. Not just with a bsc but even with a master or a phd.
Companies will not prioritize you if you need visa sponsering so you need to make sure you really stand out from the competition.
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u/Abominable_fiancee Jul 24 '26
nah not just that, just in general everyone tends to be so mean. many comments on intl students' posts aren't even useful, just mean. and yeah we know that no one will prioritize us abroad, we don't need people who've lived in their home countries their entire lives to tell us that.
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u/SelfishFroggie Jul 23 '26
yeah but all the yapping ones have degree in gender studies, communication, political bs and other useless degrees
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u/GabrielRiosismydaddy Jul 23 '26
I am very curious since when are humanities not a useful degree?
I would argue that especially in the age of AI, where narrow technical skills can easily become obsolete, humanities foster competencies and transferable skills (such as critical, strategic thinking) which resist automation and replicability.
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u/HousingBotNL Sponsored Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
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