Hometown Glory – the Benefits of Location-Specific Capital for Labour Market Outcomes of Vocational Education Graduates

Migration is often associated with favourable labour market outcomes, particularly among higher educated individuals. This paper shifts the focus to the benefits of staying by examining how location-specific capital shapes labour market outcomes for middle-skilled vocational education graduates. Using longitudinal register data from Statistics Netherlands, we analyse whether residential history, professional networks, and personal networks are associated with higher employment rates and more stable employment contracts among young vocational graduates. The results show that stayers experience more favourable labour market outcomes than newcomers (i.e. migrants) and that locally embedded professional and personal networks are positively related to employment and contract stability. These patterns do not depend on geographical contexts, but are found in both rural and urban regions. Together, the findings suggest that, through the accumulation of location-specific capital, staying, rather than moving, can be an effective labour market strategy for vocational education graduates.