Abstract Constraints from searches for squarks and gluinos at the LHC at $ \sqrt{s}=8 $ TeV are applied to the parameter space of the NMSSM with universal squark/slepton and gaugino masses at the GUT scale, but allowing for non-universal soft Higgs mass parameters (the sNMSSM). We confine ourselves to regions of the parameter space compatible with a 125 GeV Higgs boson with diphoton signal rates at least as large as the Standard Model ones, and a dark matter candidate compatible with WMAP and XENON100 constraints. Following the simulation of numerous points in the m 0 − M 1/2 plane, we compare the constraints on the sNMSSM from 3-5 jets + missing E T channels as well as from multijet + missing E T channels with the corresponding cMSSM constraints. Due to the longer squark decay cascades, lower bounds on M 1/2 are alleviated by up to 50 GeV. For heavy squarks at large m 0, the dominant constraints originate from multijet + missing E T channels due to gluino decays via stop pairs.