oa Onderwijs als scheidslijn op de Nederlandse arbeidsmarkt, 1993-2011

Education as a cleavage in the Dutch labour market, 1993-2011

This article describes developments in the association between educational attainment and labour market outcomes in the Netherlands over the last 20 years. Education has remained a very important asset on the labour market. The higher educated have higher participation rates and attain better jobs than the lower educated. The labour market participation rate has increased for all educational categories, and especially for women with low educational qualifications. The association between educational attainment and unemployment has not changed over this period. We do observe that higher credentials have less value on the labour market with respect to occupational status than before, pointing to overschooling. Furthermore, we see that the permanent full-time job is on the downhill. The relationships between educational qualifications and permanent or full-time jobs have not changed systematically over the two decades.