Students completing trade school (MBO) who have a non-European background are far more likely to be unemployed after finishing their studies than their peers, according to new figures from the national statistics office CBS.

Of those who graduated in 2022, 18% of students with at least one parent born outside Europe were still out of work a year later. For graduates with Dutch-born parents, the figure was just 6%. The gap has existed since 2007 and shows little sign of narrowing, the CBS said.

An internship is compulsory in MBO courses but, the figures show, students with a non-European background have to work harder to secure one.

In 2024, 83% of them had to apply for a placement compared with 75% of all students. They also faced more rejections: 14% said they needed to send at least seven applications, double the rate of their classmates whose parents were both born in the Netherlands.

CBS chief economist Peter Hein van Mulligen said education choices explain only part of the divide. “It simply takes more effort for people who were not born in the Netherlands,” he told news website Nu.nl. While university graduates face smaller gaps, the difference is still visible.