Startups have created over 135K jobs in the Netherlands

In the fourth annual report on Dutch startup employment, we’ve found that startups in the Netherlands currently support over 135,000 jobs across the country, more than ever before. In partnership with TechLeap and CBRE, we uncover the significants of startups to the Dutch employment landscape, and how they are a powerful and resilient jobs growth engineer, with diverse talent in high demand.

Dutch startups support over 135K jobs, with further growth potential

Following a similar trend observed in previous reports, Dutch startups are an above average growing industry with an annual growth of 7.6%.  

The Dutch startup ecosystem currently supports over 135,000  jobs, representing a 64,500 increase in net new jobs since 2018. And while older companies currently employ the most people, it’s younger cohorts of companies that are creating jobs at the fastest rate, and entrepreneurship accelerates.

Impact startups becoming are a major employer

Impact related startups are on the rise, both in terms of job growth and VC investment. Impact startups with at least 2 employees currently generating 10% (or 13.9K) of the total number of startup jobs, up from 7% last year.

Rising stars like Lightyear, EVBox and VanMoof are amongst some of the impact startups contributing to this ongoing growing trend.

With over 13.9K jobs created to date, Dutch impact startups are becoming a pillar of the tech ecosystem in the Netherlands.

Furthermore, in 2022, €1 billion has been invested into Dutch impact startups, more than double the amount invested in 2020.

Rapid job growth in food tech, energy and travel sectors

Healthtech and Fintech, Europe’s two biggest startup sectors, also provide the highest numbers of startup jobs in the Netherlands, responsible for supporting 32,100 jobs in 2022. 

However, Foodtech, Energy and Travel are currently the fastest-growing sectors for job creation. Over 4,000 new jobs have been added in these sectors since April 2021. Foodtech has the highest annual growth of more than 27% since July 2021. The resurgence in Travel can be largely attributed to the bounce-back of Booking.com post pandemic.

Tech jobs are distributed right across the Netherlands

Startup job creation in the Netherlands impacts all regions. Over 57% of startup jobs are found within the North and South Holland provinces.

Notably, the Northern Netherlands continue to excel in terms of job growth. One notable example includes the province of Groningen, which continues its track record for a second consecutive year as the fastest-growing region in terms of job growth. 

Since 2018, approximately 1.2K new local jobs have been created by Groningen based startups with an increase in their job count by 12% – growing faster than any other province in the country.

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