Recovery largely bypasses small business sector: new figures

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There is a sharp divide in the vital small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector in the Netherlands, according to new figures. While there is a small group of fast-growing firms, there is also a far bigger group that never or rarely moves forward, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Friday.

The new data came from the state of the SME sector, an annual publication from the MKB committee for entrepreneurship and financing, and the CBS national statistics office.

Taken together, SME companies booked 2016 turnover 3.4% or €30bn higher and created 92,000 jobs, an increase of 2.9% on 2015. But growth was registered at only 10% of the companies. Business was more or less static at the remaining 90%. In the meantime, a shortage of workers combined with lack of finance threatened to put a brake on further growth.

In a foreword to the study, junior economic affairs minister Mona Keijzer said there were plans to help the SME sector in the future with ‘financial support, a reduction in taxes and through more transparent rules and regulations to stimulate fair competition’.

There were more than 4.2 million people employed in the SME sector in 2016, the annual report stated. A group of 18,565 businesses in the sector grew so quickly that they were forced to expand their workforce substantially, creating 262,000 new jobs.

The CBS said the SME included 756,190 independent contractors (zzp-ers), 202,380 so-called micro-companies (employing between 1 and 10 FTEs), 39,595 small companies (10 to 50 FTEs) and 8,365 medium-sized companies with up to 250 FTEs.

The entire SME sector accounts for 60% of the business community’s contribution to the Dutch economy. In 2016, these companies booked turnover of €903bn and employed 3.3 million people.

An infographic explaining the findings (in Dutch) is here.

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