Amsterdam, Netherlands - SEO Economisch Onderzoek

Figure 4-1: Unemployment per education level in the Amsterdam region (%)Source: Calculated from O+S Amsterdam (2008e) (working-age individuals available for labormarket, Amsterdam region, figure for 2007), (unemployed, Amsterdam metropolitan area, figurefor 2008)Notice that some (temporary) unemployment will always be present, because that goes withchanging jobs or getting a first job. Although more factors influence unemployment rates, it isclear from Figure 4-1 that there is an inverse relation between unemployment rates and educationlevels. From the perspective of the (regional) performance of higher education institutes, thefigure can be interpreted in more than one way. First, getting a higher education degree meansgood labor market prospects. So the institutes seem to be doing a good job. However, theworking-age individuals available for the regional labor market may have gotten their educationin another region. In the Netherlands, information on the career trajectories of WO and HBOgraduates is poorly available (OECD, 2008d: 32).Second, not getting a higher education degree implies worse labor market prospects. Theunemployment rate in the group of people with only primary education is ten times as large as inthe group of people with tertiary education. Here, there is evidently an imbalance. In the figure,people should move to the right: more people should get education levels higher than basiceducation. Participation in higher education, in other words, should increase. The OECDmentions increasing the number of secondary school students who go on to university and otherhigher education institutes as one way of making better use of knowledge and skills in theRandstad area (OECD, 2007a: 133). Ethnic minorities are underrepresented in tertiary education(OECD, 2007a: 150). For example, over the period 2006-07, 25- 29% of the population(depending on the precise area) consisted of non-Western foreign Dutch nationals (allochtoon),while 17% of all people who got their higher education diploma were non-Western foreign Dutchnationals (Statistics Netherlands Statline, 2009d).For the past 30 years, the population dynamics of large cities in the Netherlands (includingAmsterdam) have been characterized by suburbanization and urban sprawl. Increasing welfareand declining transportation costs are the driving forces behind this process. What also hascontributed to suburbanization are the often crowded housing markets of cities, as a result ofwhich housing prices are driven up. Fewer people will then be able to afford housing. Amsterdamin particular faces this problem severely. One of the byproducts is the development of a divided84