The Dutch shortage of technical staff is a stock problem, not only an intake problem. Compared with most of the EU, a small share of Dutch workers holds a degree in science, engineering or ICT, and that position will change over years, not quarters. Our conclusion: employers who wait for more graduates wait too long. The fastest source of technical talent is the group of technically educated people who already live here and work outside their field.
Below the European average
Eurostat measures how many working people hold a completed higher degree in STEM: science, mathematics, ICT and engineering. The Netherlands sits clearly below the EU average and in the lower part of the European table. Germany, the Nordic countries and Ireland sit well above it, and so do Spain, France and Poland.
That is striking for an economy that runs on technology, logistics and high-tech manufacturing. The intake from universities and universities of applied sciences has grown in recent years, and the number of STEM graduates at work grew with it. Yet the share barely moved, because the total workforce grew as well and other countries did not stand still.
A quiet reserve
Where the technically educated work is a finding in its own right. Most work as professionals, technicians or managers. But a sizeable group works in clerical, service, trade or elementary jobs, outside the knowledge occupations. Part of that is a free career choice. In a market with a long official list of shortage occupations, it is also a reserve that already lives and works in the Netherlands.
Winning part of that group back is faster than training new people and closer than recruiting abroad. It does ask employers to look past the current job title and at the degree and the skills behind it.
German benchmarks do not fit
German employers draw on a markedly larger technical workforce. Recruitment strategies that work there, such as waiting for the right graduate or relying on large technical job boards, assume a stock that the Netherlands does not have.
What this does not show
STEM is broader than technology in daily speech: it also covers mathematics, natural sciences and construction-related degrees. Someone who means only ICT or only installation work needs a narrower measure. The figure counts degrees, not skills. A self-taught programmer falls outside it; a physicist working in sales counts. The series only starts in 2021, so there is no long trend yet. Our reading would change if the share rose quickly in the coming years, or if many of those outside the knowledge occupations turned out to have left their field for good.
What you can do
- Plan technical capacity in years. Traineeships, retraining and long-term partnerships with schools pay off slowly but last.
- Look past the job title. A technically educated person in a service or sales role can be a strong candidate for a technical job with some retraining.
- Select on skills as well as degrees, so you do not miss self-taught specialists.
- Do not copy German recruitment playbooks. Build your approach on the smaller Dutch stock.
More on these markets: engineering and software engineering.