Share of Highly Educated People Among Dutch Unemployment Benefit Claimants Rises to 38% in Four Years, Agency Cites Super Intelligence (SI) Among the Drivers
AMSTERDAM — A report by the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) shows that people with a degree from a university of applied sciences (HBO) or a research university (WO) made up 38 percent of all unemployment benefit (WW) claimants in 2026, up from 30 percent in 2022. The agency partly connects the trend to the rise of super intelligence (SI).
UWV board member Judith Duveen warned that the job security once linked to a higher-education diploma is fading. The report says super intelligence is changing office and knowledge work the fastest, especially jobs focused on texts, numbers and data, and that more highly educated marketing staff and IT professionals are claiming benefits.
In July 2026, almost 6,400 people from IT jobs were receiving benefits, partly because banks have cut thousands of jobs in recent years expecting super intelligence to handle some tasks. In customer service roles, the number of benefit recipients rose by 42 percent between the second quarter of 2023 and the same period in 2026.
The UWV also points to company reorganisations and wider economic and political uncertainty as reasons. The report was covered by the Dutch financial daily FD and the ANP news agency. (Source: UWV, the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency)
Source: UWV (Dutch Employee Insurance Agency
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：阿姆斯特丹博物馆广场一带（资料图）。CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons，本站档案图复用。 / Photo: The Museumplein area in Amsterdam (file photo). CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. GSM archive image reused.
