These Are the Jobs With the Best Prospects in the Netherlands in 2026
What is growing, what is steady and what is shrinking in the Dutch job market this year, according to the government's labour agency.
See more of Dutch Brief in your Google search results
The UWV, the Dutch government agency that handles employee insurance and tracks the labour market, has published its annual overview of which jobs offer the best and worst chances of finding work in the Netherlands. The message is mixed: the severe staff shortages of recent years have eased, but across much of the economy there are still more jobs than people looking for them.
“After the coronavirus pandemic, the labour market became very tight. In 2023 there were really unprecedented shortages,” said Stef Molleman, a labour market adviser at the UWV. “That has eased somewhat in recent years, but on balance there is still a shortage.”
The jobs on the rise
Many of the strongest fields have been in demand for years and are expected to stay that way. The UWV points in particular to construction, energy and installation technology, transport and logistics, healthcare and hospitality.
Several new roles joined the promising list in 2026. At MBO level (vocational education and training), these include bricklayers and pointers, veterinary assistants, and sales staff in second-hand shops. At HBO and WO level (universities of applied sciences and research universities), they include budget consultants, facility managers and event managers.
The reasons lie in wider changes in society, according to the UWV. “Because of the booming new construction, the expansion of the electricity grid, and the necessary maintenance of bridges and roads, jobs such as bricklayer, road construction machine operator and construction assistant have become promising,” Molleman said. The agency links the demand for veterinary assistants to the many pets that people took in during the pandemic, and says a rise in problem debt has created a shortage of debt-counselling staff. The popularity of second-hand shopping is another factor. “The second-hand segment has become very popular. Vintage stores are popping up everywhere,” Molleman said, which is creating openings for sales staff in those shops.
SPONSORED
You’re overpaying your accountant. And they still don’t call you back.
Neno gives you a dedicated bookkeeper, automated admin, real-time financial insights and a free business bank account. Everything your business needs, in one place.
No chasing. No surprises. No unnecessary costs.
Where AI is cutting opportunities
At the other end of the list, the UWV says artificial intelligence is steadily reducing the number of openings in several fields. Last year this was already visible for graphic designers, translators and copywriters. This year the agency adds advertising roles, as well as customer service work, where chatbots are taking over tasks once done by people. The UWV also notes that AI plays a part in the falling demand for photographers.
On the jobs most affected by AI, the UWV goes further and advises against training for them at all. “We currently advise against seeking your future in these kinds of professions,” Molleman said. “Because of the further development of AI, the job prospects there are really poor for the future.”
Not only AI: too many applicants
Not every decline is down to technology. The UWV stresses that a job can also fall off the promising list simply because demand drops or because too many people want to do it. It points to a surplus of job seekers for roles such as animal carers and life coaches, and notes that companies appear to have less budget for outside training, which weighs on demand for communication-skills trainers.
Some roles that were previously promising have now left the list for similar reasons. These include police officers, policy advisers in the social domain, secondary-school teachers in social studies subjects, and lecturers in economics and law at universities of applied sciences and research universities.
How to check your own prospects
For people weighing up a career move, the UWV offers free tools. Its careers helper (beroepskeuzehulp) lets users search for jobs with strong prospects in their own region and see which vacancies match their skills, while a separate Skills dashboard shows the tasks and skills that go with promising occupations. The agency says the information can also help professionals advise others on retraining or upskilling.