Fewer than half of highly educated employed in private sector

The proportion of highly educated in the employed labour force is still on the increase. In 2006, nearly one third of the employed labour force were highly educated as against one quarter in 1996. More than half of highly educated people were employed in the sector non-commercial services in 2006.

Education: high percentage of well educated

Over the past decade, the number of well educated employees has risen across all sectors. The proportion of highly educated is particularly high in the sector non-commercial services.

Non-commercial services comprises the sector education (nearly 80 percent of employees highly educated) and the sectors government services and health care and welfare, where approximately 40 percent of employees belong to the category of highly educated.

Distribution of highly educated employees and employed labour force, 2006

Well educated in sector non-commercial services

The total number of highly educated personnel can also be distributed across the various sectors. This approach shows that last year slightly over half of well educated (52 percent) were employed in non-commercial services, as opposed to only one third of the total employed labour force. So, while two in every three persons employed are working in the private sector, this applies to only one in two employed well educated.

Only 12 percent of well educated were employed in industry as against 22 percent of the total number of persons employed. In the sector commercial services these percentages were 35 and 40 respectively.

Proportion of highly educated in the employed labour force by sector

Martje Roessingh and Andries Kuipers