Hbo graduates have good papers for the labour market

Hbo-graduates entering the labour market hardly need to look for a job and almost all of them can find work at their own level of education. This conclusion can be drawn by the annual HBO-Monitor by Maastricht University's Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA), published today. In previous years, too, it appeared that hbo-graduates are doing just fine on the labour market.

“Just like a year earlier, most graduates of academic year 2020/2021 left their hbo-education during the corona pandemic. Despite the restrictive conditions associated with the pandemic, college graduates experienced a successful labour market entry in 2022. The unemployment rate among recent college graduates in 2022 (2.7%) is almost the same as in 2021 (2.6%), and thus very low compared to previous years. In terms of job security and entry unemployment, the labour market situation of recent college graduates is even better than ever before. Anno 2022, 67% of recent college graduates have a permanent job, compared to 61% in 2021. In addition, 87% found a job within one month in 2022, compared to 81% in 2021,” said Barbara Belfi, project leader of the HBO Monitor and researcher at ROA.

Tight labour market

A total of 30,000 former students who completed their studies in 2020/2021 participated in the ROA survey. Participants in the survey were more positive than last year, perhaps also helped by the tight labour market. Unemployment (2.7%) therefore hardly plays a role among this group. Two-thirds of them have a permanent job within eighteen months of graduating. As many as 87 per cent did not even have to look for a job, but had work immediately. Hbo-graduates have been doing well in the labour market for years. Particularly in ‘shortage sectors’ such as beta technology, care and education, graduates find work very quickly and have the highest chance of finding a permanent job.

Also striking is the success of students who followed an associate degree (Ad) programme: 90 per cent of them found work immediately, without any search time. Just over half of Ad programmes are part-time programmes, i.e. with students already working alongside their studies.

Connection to labour market

Hbo-graduates are generally positive (79%) about the way their study programme connects to work: By far the majority of HBO graduates find a job in the field they were trained for (77%).

ROA and the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences have jointly released a Factsheet with the results of the HBO Monitor 2022.